News

On 23 January 2023, I travelled to Brussels and attended a Joint Meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Interparliamentary Council (UNIC) & Sub-Committee on NATO Partnerships (PCNP), as a Member of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly (NATO PA). We were welcomed by NATO PA President Joelle Garriaud-Maylam, followed by Michal Szczerba, NATO PA Vice-President and Co-Chair of UNIC.

Today I visited the Launer Factory in Walsall. Launer was founded in the 1940s and has provided Her Majesty The Queen with handbags and small leather goods since 1968.

With the One Stop Shop at the Civic Centre expected to be permanently closed and the future of the Walsall branch of Citizen’s Advice looking uncertain, YMCA Black Country Group are offering a free tailor-made drop-in service to assist my constituents in Walsall South.

On Wednesday 18 January 2023, the House of Commons considered the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill. The Bill makes it much easier for Government Ministers to revoke, change or replace EU legislation that was brought into UK domestic law as the UK left the EU, including by introducing a sunset clause that would automatically abolish most retained EU law at the end of 2023.

I was signatory to a letter to the Education Secretary to ask for further support for students. The Government intends to uprate Student Maintenance Loans by only 2.8% in September. Despite the fact that inflation is currently over 10%, and a 2.8% increase will represent a £1500 drop in the real-terms value of student maintenance loans since 2020/2021. This below inflation rise comes after years of cuts to student support.