Dear John,

This week we saw the people of Wakefield and Tiverton give their verdicts on this Government. I was delighted to have gained a new colleague in Simon Lightwood who I am sure will do a brilliant job representing his constituents in Parliament and I am looking forward to working with him.  
 
Wakefield has shown, the country has lost confidence in the Tories. This result is a clear judgement on a Conservative Party that has run out of energy and ideas. Britain deserves better. Wakefield has voted Labour because we have the solutions for the challenges facing the British people. 
  
Tory MPs know he's on his way out, the public are absolutely sick of him, but week after week the Prime Minister continues to look for someone else to blame for his failures. Last week, it was his ethics advisor who resigned, this week it is the Conservative Chairman, Oliver Dowden.  
  
The Prime Minister is overseeing the misery of economic downturn, the highest tax burden in decades, and now strikes. He's incapable of getting on with his job and working people are paying the price for the Prime Ministers failure. His government is suggesting we should all accept pay cuts, whilst wanting to remove the cap on bankers' bonuses. His actions are blatant and enough is enough. He must go. 

In April, I wrote to the health secretary, Sajid Javid, following concerns that West Midlands Ambulance Service was close to complete collapse. The response which arrived more than two months later, failed to address how the Government will tackle the root causes of the issues with West Midlands Ambulance Service. With the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and the Women’s Hospital both in our constituency, I wrote back to the health secretary to query his lack of action and woefully lacking response. 
 
In my letter I listed the actions that we must now see, including: 
 
1) An end to the chronic underfunding of the NHS, 
2) A realistic plan to tackle the 110,000 staff shortages, 
3) There are 333 cases of bed blocking happening at University Hospitals Birmingham alone. These must be freed up which means finding proper solutions to fixing the social care system that allow patients to be safely discharged back into the community, 
4) Providing adequate support for primary care services so that the public does not resort to dialling 999 to access basic treatment that could otherwise be treated by a GP or dentist. 
 
To read the full article and my letter to the health secretary, please follow the link below. 

This week I was extremely disappointed, yet entirely unsurprised Liz Truss failed to answer the question I put to her in Parliament on Tuesday. I asked why she, or any member of her Government, had not visited Afghanistan since its fall last August. I also asked, when she will reverse aid cuts impacting women and girls, which has cost lives and is damaging our reputation abroad? She avoided answering all of these questions and unfortunately chose to follow the PM’s lead by chasing headlines, and not delivering. 
 
With this in my mind, I spoke to ITV Central to put in more detail what I saw and learnt from visiting Afghanistan and what it means to some of my constituents locally.  

In a little over a months’ time, our constituency will be playing its part in hosting the Commonwealth Games. This is an exciting opportunity for Birmingham and will see the creation of 20,000 jobs, huge investment and will put the eyes of 1.5 billion people firmly on our city. I am excited to witness the future legacy of these Games. 
 
Consequently, there will be a temporary impact on residents. With the University of Birmingham, Edgbaston Cricket Ground and many other excellent venues in the constituency acting as hosts to sporting events and athletes, there will be some disruption. I will be writing to residents directly who will see the greatest impact with specific information – if you want to see in advance how you may be affected, including whether you need to apply for a Local Access Parking Permit, please follow this link which will provide you with some of the necessary information https://www.birmingham2022.com/getset/birmingham/.  
 
However, I wanted to make all aware of how you can get prepared in advance so that we can all enjoy the Games to their fullest. First, there will be a number of Get Set for the Games sessions. These events are largely targeted at residents and businesses living or working near to a Games venue. There's no need to register, just pop along and speak to a member of the team. Find out dates and times here: https://www.birmingham2022.com/getset/sessions
 
You can also check out the marathon route that has been designed to allow as many residents as possible to see a Commonwealth Games event for free. You can view the route here: https://www.birmingham2022.com/getset/birmingham/marathon