‘So many of us whose families came here from overseas have the same story to tell: the welcome, the decency, and the compassion of Britain’s quiet majority’, writes the Labour party chair Bridget Phillipson
This Thursday voters in Holborn & St Pancras will go to the polls to pick a new MP. I’ll be there today and again this week, backing Camden’s own Sagal Abdi-Wali.
Sagal is putting hope firmly on the ballot paper for Labour. She’s a fantastic local voice — she has spent twenty years volunteering locally. Sagal used her time as an elected local councillor working for better housing and supporting young families.
Sagal came to our country as a child fleeing war 30 years ago, and found kindness and support, a home and a community, here in Britain. So many of us whose families came here from overseas have the same story to tell: the welcome, the decency, and the compassion of Britain’s quiet majority, far from the vile online abuse of the extreme right. Now Sagal wants to repay the generosity of Camden’s communities and renew hope in our country and its future.
She wants to work with Andy Burnham and Labour’s team to put our country on the right track once again. That means good growth in every postcode, hope in every heart, and Labour values clear in every choice.
Sagal knows the huge challenges local residents face — including the appalling track record of Thames Water locally, which she’ll work with the Labour Government to tackle. Sagal is also backing the Prime Minister’s determination to end rough sleeping, taking forward work she began locally as a councillor. Labour is working to offer everyone a bed by Christmas.
But hope doesn’t just come from ending what’s wrong. It comes from people seeing the government on their side day in day out, addressing real problems and bringing real change. The Labour Government is tackling one of the biggest scandals the Tories left behind: that after fourteen years of Tory rule there are almost a million young people across England not in education, employment or training.
As Andy Burnham says, politics should be about problem-solving, not point-scoring. I’ve been so impressed by Sagal’s work to bring schools, colleges, universities and businesses together locally to make sure young people have clear routes into learning and work. After so many years of the Tories talking down our young people, our Labour government is taking a very different approach. We are supporting them to succeed so we all succeed, bringing hope back to Britain.
Of course none of this can be taken for granted — people in Holborn and St Pancras need to hear our message and back our plans. I’ll be there with trade unionists and Labour activists this week and on the day, and I hope to see lots of you there too!
‘Tory conference set for more infighting’
Next week also brings Tory Party Conference, set to see even more infighting than usual.
While Andy Burnham has united Labour and set out how he’s tackling the big problems the Tories left behind, Kemi Badenoch’s gang are still clinging to the memory of Liz Truss. She replaced her shadow Chancellor with a man who described Truss’s disastrous mini-Budget as “the right plans”.
This week they’re falling apart over Labour’s plans to fund a new National Care Service by adjusting the pensions triple lock. Top Tories have already come out against Kemi Badenoch’s position on the triple lock. She needs to stop opposing change for the sake of it, put our country before her leadership troubles, show some backbone and back Labour’s plan for care.
‘Back on the hockey pitch’
I will be taking to the hockey pitch again this weekend for my team. I took it up again after Covid and was struck by the sense of community it brings. In a world that seems set on finding division, sport unites. So to everyone who runs amateur sport in this country – from arranging fixtures to running the line, umpires to treasurers – thank you for bringing teams and bringing communities together.
‘Reform councils cancelling vital work’
My local council in Sunderland used to back a great North East charity called Show Racism the Red Card — dedicated to kicking racism out of football. Now Reform runs the Council, they’ve ended 30 years of support, claiming the charity has “an agenda”. It’s pretty clear what Reform’s agenda is when they cancel vital work like this.