‘Labour can’t let hope of two-state resolution disappear’

‘Labour got it badly wrong in stubbornly refusing to join calls for a ceasefire early on in the hostilities’, former shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth writes

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Andy Burnham entered Downing Street fizzing with ideas to make life better. He’s cutting VAT on energy bills. There are new efforts to create good industrial jobs across the North and Midlands. Ministers will finally fix care services for those in the throes of dementia.

This government has a clear Labour mission. The public are now giving Labour a second chance.

In the coming days at the UN, Andy Burnham must bring the same fizz, mission and focus to world affairs as well. It’s a daunting task.

Brexit was a hammer blow to our living standards. We need to foster more cooperation with our European partners, not less. Ukraine deserves our ongoing, rock-solid support.

The international community must help end the brutal civil war in Sudan. A coordinated humanitarian response to the devastating Ebola outbreak in DR Congo is needed.

We’re seeing how shipping blockages push up energy and food bills so we all want to see a sustainable end to conflicts.

Labour is best when it’s boldest with values at the heart of policy. That’s especially true in foreign policy. This week Andy Burnham, Ed Miliband and Louise Haigh showed bold Labour leadership.

October 7th was a despicable, murderous terrorist atrocity. The rise in vile, frightening antisemitism on our streets is an evil that must be defeated.

I’ve always supported a two-state solution where a secure Israel alongside a viable Palestinian state live side by side in peace.

Labour got it badly wrong in stubbornly refusing to join calls for a ceasefire early on in the hostilities. Frankly I couldn’t look my constituents in the face who were so angry at the Labour leadership’s position.

I know critics will rightly remind me I went along with Labour’s abstention in Parliament. Though I did want Labour to support a ceasefire and argued internally for one, the leadership took a different view. I wasn’t happy with it but also I didn’t want to undermine our chances of ridding the country of the Tories by causing division so close to a general election.

What has been allowed to unfold in Gaza has been shameful. Meanwhile settlement expansion and settler violence in the occupied West Bank everyday undermines any two-state solution.

As a member of Labour Friends of Palestine, I visited the West Bank twelve years ago. What I witnessed will always stay with me.

Andy Burnham made the right call in imposing a ban on trade in goods from these illegal settlements. Labour can’t allow hope to fully drain away from the possibility of a lasting peace through a two-state solution.

‘Poetry helping me recover from stroke’

In January an unexpected lightning bolt hit me when I suffered a stroke.

I’ve used Lego and piano playing to get the movement back in my left arm. The amazing thing about the brain is that it can rewire itself post stroke. The boffins call it neuroplasticity in fact.

But stroke recovery isn’t just a physical journey. One in three stroke survivors will experience severe depression.

As an MP fighting for mental health care was a passion of mine and I’m still campaigning.

To help me through the troughs I’ve returned to my love of poetry. Every Sunday on instagram I ask for poetry and recite my favourite poems from Shakespeare to WB Yeats. Tune in and let me know what you would like me to recite.

‘Sagal Abdi-Wali is an inspiration’

As a Leicester MP I took pride in helping families fleeing persecution settle in the city. Labour’s candidate in the Holborn by election, Sagal Abdi-Wali escaped war in Somalia arriving in Camden as a child refugee. She has given so much back to Camden as a community activist and councillor. Her story is an inspiration and if elected as their MP will do Camden proud.

‘We need more trade unionists in key public roles’

Tory politicians got hot under the collar complaining that TUC boss Paul Novak was taking up a role with the Bank of England. They forgot trade unionists have been involved with the Bank for donkey’s years. For too long wages have been allowed to be squeezed, we need more trade unionists in key public roles, not less.