Dear John,

Vladimir Putin must be held to account for their illegal invasion of Ukraine and the UK government must do all it can to ensure the creation of a special tribunal to investigate the crime of aggression. 
 
This begins with the UK standing up to Putin and showing that this country will not be home for the oligarchs that prop up his regime. To reinforce this message however, the Prime Minister must move faster to clean up the UK economy from Russian influence. We need to see strong action on dirty Russian money in the UK economy and the Government must work cross-party to make the Economic Crime Bill stronger. 
 
The Ukrainian people deserve justice as well as our continued military, economic, diplomatic, and humanitarian assistance. 

In this week of darkness, we have seen glimmers of hope. We have seen the resolve of Ukrainian people; the unity of our allies and we must do what we can to support them. I was proud to see the Disaster Emergency Committee (DEC) Appeal receive over £100 million. 
 
More locally, it has been fantastic to see the generosity of our communities. I have been working alongside Quinton and Harborne Labour Party to organise donations of clothes, blankets and medicines. In just two days, thousands of items were gratefully received which will now head to refugee sites in Ukraine, Poland, Moldova, Romania and Hungary to help families fleeing the conflict in Ukraine. 
 
If you would like to support those in Ukraine by making a donation, you can find the link to the DEC appeal here.  

This week it has been made clear that energy security is national security. As the situation in Ukraine becomes more severe, Britain cannot be left at the mercy of a dictator to heat our homes. 
 
Moreover, I fully believe that homegrown power is the cheaper, cleaner and a more secure route to energy security and sovereignty. While the Conservatives’ have had a decade of failure on renewables, nuclear, and energy efficiency and is bizarrely forcing every household to take a £200 loan to cover the cost of energy, Labour has announced its five-point energy security plan that would make Britain safer and keep bills lower. Labour’s plan includes improving the energy efficiency of 19 million homes over a decade, it would cut UK gas imports by 15%, save up to £400 off the average energy bill for families and support 100,000 jobs in the West Midlands.  

I was delighted to be unanimously reselected to stand once again as Labour’s representative for Birmingham Edgbaston on Thursday. Being the MP for the constituency where I grew up, has been the greatest honour of my life and my thanks go to the 37 Labour branches and affiliates who continue to put their faith in me. 
 
Since first being elected in 2017, I have voted more than 745 times, asked 1,700 parliamentary questions and spoken in over 200 debates. Time and again, I’ve worked hard to represent local residents on the issues that matter most to them. 
  
During the pandemic, casework soared with so many people writing to me and calling to ask for help. Over the last four years, I’ve supported more than 31,000 people with a range of issues. I am particularly proud to have been named the Patchwork Foundation’s MP of the year in 2020 which recognised the work I have done in creating a mentoring programme for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds and advancing the concerns of minority groups. 
  
But it is the successes I’ve had with local campaigns that brings me the greatest pride. Alongside Labour supporters and local residents, we protested to keep our banks open on Harborne High Street. I have worked with the police on Saif Lodge, to ensure that the first example in the country of substandard exempt accommodation was permanently closed. I’ve also worked hard in Birmingham to ensure we improve the state of our roads. Now that the council has put an end to the disastrous Tory PFI contract with Amey, I have worked with our excellent Labour councillors to see that Edgbaston constituency gets a considerable proportion of the £100 million investment to repair and resurface our roads. 
  
But there is so much more for me to do for communities across our constituency. I will continue to work tirelessly to represent the interests of everyone and look forward to contesting the next General Election as Labour’s candidate. 

hereThis week I was able to join members of Knightlow Road Street Watch in Harborne. It was a great opportunity to discuss daily issues that residents are facing with crime and anti-social behaviour. However, it was also clear that some of the solutions we can put in place by simply working together and keeping each other informed whether that is through social media, local street WhatsApp groups, street watches and speed watches, local Police or by contacting your elected members. If there is anything which I can help you whether that be with planning applications, crime and anti-social behaviour or indeed, anything else, please contact me on 0121 392 8426 or [email protected].

Tuesday 8th March was International Women’s Day where the theme for the day was Breaking the Bias. This continues to be an important day for us to stop to take a moment to recognise how far we have come. For me, this moment was in recognising how, out of the ten candidates for local elections in our constituency, Labour has chosen to select seven fantastic female candidates across Quinton, Bartley Green, Harborne, Edgbaston and North Edgbaston.  
 
Watch the video featuring some of our local candidates explaining why they got into politics here.