David Cameron promised the NHS would be safe in his hands.

Since then:

4,000 nurses have been axed
Ambulance queues are up 50%
A&E waiting times are at a 9 year high
Billions have been wasted on an unneccesary top-down reorganisation of the NHS

Only Labour can protect and strengthen the NHS for the future

The price of Tory failure

The price of Tory failure

David Cameron and George Osborne are failing on the economy. And middle and lower income families are paying the price, while millionaires get more.

• Slow growth and high unemployment means that David Cameron and George Osborne are borrowing £212 billion more than they planned
  
• Working families are losing another £279 next year
  
  
• But 8,000 people earning £1 million a year are getting a tax cut worth an average £107,500

We need Labour’s plan for the economy: an economy that grows, where everybody has a stake and the rewards are fairly shared.

Labour is calling for:

• A real plan for jobs and growth – including a temporary VAT cut and a bank bonus tax to guarantee jobs for young people
  
• Long term reform of our economy and banks to make our economy stronger
   
• Cancelling the tax cut for millionaires at a time when millions of families and pensioners are paying more
  
  
  

Bolton A&E department

Recent stories in the press have raised questions about the future of Royal Bolton Hospital's Accident and Emergency (A&E) Department.

The “Healthier Together” review being led by NHS Greater Manchester on behalf of the area's twelve Clinical Commissioning Groups, including Bolton, is considering what ‘best care’ for patients may look like in a range of clinical areas provided in most district general hospitals, in the community and in primary care.

There are nine areas of health under review including urgent and emergency care. NHS Greater Manchester are stressing that this review is clinician led. A public consultation is due to begin in Spring 2013.

Royal Bolton Hospital's A&E Department is the second busiest in Greater Manchester, dealing with over 110,000 patients in 2010. It serves the population of Bolton and surrounding districts with an estimated population of 330,000, including over 20% of cases which come from outside the Bolton PCT area.

People in Bolton value their local hospital and their local A&E department – they expect it to be there for them when they need it. In an emergency they do not want to face the potential risks involved of having to travel to an A&E department in another town or city e.g. Wigan or Salford.

It is vital that Bolton has its own fully functioning A&E department.

I will urge people in Bolton to respond to the consultation when it begins in order to show the strength of feeling on this issue.

I will fight to keep Bolton's A&E department open.

Labour's Local Election Campaign 2012

These are tough times. Unemployment is going up and living standards are falling as families face a quiet crisis of rising living costs – with petrol prices, train fares and energy bills soaring. These elections are our chance to make a difference to that.

Labour is with you: on the side of working families. Labour councils and councillors will work hard to deliver fairness in tough times and protect families from the worst of the Tory-led Government’s cuts.

The Tories are out of touch: and making things harder not easier. A million young people are out of work and families are feeling the squeeze, but the Tories and their Liberal Democrat allies are hitting families and pensioners’ with new tax rises and tax credit cuts. They are cutting 16,000 police from the streets and laying off thousands of nurses in the NHS – while at the same time giving millionaires a tax cut.

Tuition fees trebled to £9,000
even though they promised to abolish them

VAT increased to 20 per cent
even though they campaigned against it

A top-down reorganisation of the NHS
even though they ruled this out in the Coalition Agreement

Cuts and tax rises that go too far, too fast and hit the poorest hardest, with a stagnant economy and rising unemployment
even though they warned that this was “extremely dangerous given the weakness of our economy”

The Lib Dems say they have “nothing to apologise for”.

What do you think?

Labour understands that Britain has a responsibility to safeguard the future of the next generation and give them the support they need to make the most of their potential.

With one in five young people unemployed, the EMA scrapped and the trebling of tuition fees, there is a real danger that the talent of the younger generation will be lost.

We are calling on the Tory-led Government to create thousands of new apprentice places with “Jobs for Contracts” – a plan which would require any company wanting to provide goods or services to the public sector to have an apprenticeship scheme.

Complacent Ministers Must Wake Up to Jobs Emergency

New unemployment statistics confirmed that we’re facing an unemployment emergency in Britain.

Unemployment has now soared to the highest level for a generation and long term youth unemployment has more than doubled since January last year.

Those of us who watch this closely see what’s going wrong. Tax rises and spending cuts that go too far and too fast have choked off the recovery. Result? No jobs and growth or prospect of them.

The Tory-led Government is now set to borrow £158 billion more than planned – because more people are out of work claiming benefit rather than paying tax. Result? An economic plan that’s backfired and a deficit headache that won’t go away.

The new work programmes they boasted about are yet to have an impact. Result? Higher youth unemployment returning and a benefit bill we simply can’t afford.

The Government claimed last month that the labour market is ‘stabilising’. This shows how clearly out of touch they are with ordinary people.

Complacent ministers need to wake up to the jobs crisis they're responsible for and take urgent action now.

Labour's Plan for Jobs

This is a really worrying time for families and businesses. Many people are struggling with higher food prices and gas and electricity bills.

They are worried about their jobs and their children’s futures.

The Tory-led Government are cutting too far and too fast and risk choking off economic recovery. Unemployment is rising again and is currently at the highest level in 17 years. One in five young people are out of work and now more women are unemployed than at any time since 1988. We need to act now to show the Tory-led Government that there is another way.

Labour has set out a clear five-point plan for jobs, to help struggling families and support small businesses. Our jobs plan includes:

1. A £2 billion tax on bank bonuses to fund 100,000 jobs for young people and build 25,000 affordable homes

2. Bringing forward long-term investment projects, like new school buildings

3. Temporarily reversing the VAT rise – a £450 boost for families with children

4. A one year cut in VAT to 5% on home improvements and repairs to help small businesses

5. A tax break for every small firm which takes on extra workers

Drop The Bill

Put the NHS first

The Government is planning the biggest re-organisation of the NHS since it began in 1948.

It is unnecessary, unwanted, wasteful and damaging – and threatens to end the NHS as we know it.

Only last year, the Government promised people they wouldn’t do it. Many thousands of people have already called on the Government to stop.

But they are ploughing on, ignoring public and professional opinion, out of touch with Britain.

We need to make the Government listen before it's too late.

Please sign Labour's petition at http://www.dropthebill.com/

Save Our High Streets

I'm calling on the Tory-led Government to back jobs and growth and take action to Save Our High Street in Bolton. High street shops are continuing to struggle while the Government stands by and does nothing.

Slow retail sales and the recent wave of high street failures have been exacerbated by the Government’s VAT hike and its failure to back Labour’s plan to give local people a real say over the future of their high street.

Over 20% of shops in Bolton stand empty, while retail sales remain sluggish with a monthly increase in volume of 0.7% in June following a 1.4% fall in May. According to the Office of National Statistics this week, “the underlying pattern in the monthly retail sales growth rate was flat.”

Labour is calling for the Government to implement its four point plan to Save Our High Streets;

1. Cut VAT - introduce a temporary cut in VAT from 20% to 17.5%, to give struggling retailers a boost and put £450 back into each family’s pocket.

2. Give local people the power to put the heart back into the high street. By amending the Localism Bill, Labour would give communities a real say in developing a plan for their local shops.

3. Repeat Labour’s empty shops initiative, enabling councils to pursue innovative uses for empty shops and reinvigorate high-streets, such as using vacant units for cultural, community or learning services, rather than leaving them empty. We would fund a £5 million programme as part of the £200 million allocated to regional growth from a repeat of the bank bonus tax.

4. Promote a fair playing field on the High Street by putting a competition test into the planning system.


The Tory-led Government has opposed Labour’s plan to cut VAT to give our high street a boost and has failed to back Labour’s call to give local people a greater say over their high street.

The Tories opposed Labour’s plan to give local people a real say over the future of their High Street.

I want the Government to take action so we can put the heart back in the high street.”

I held a ‘Meet Your MP’ event on Market Street, Little Lever, on Saturday 30th July from 10.30am – 11.30am to speak to local residents about Labour’s campaign.

Labour’s petition to protect the NHS

I'm backing Labour’s new national campaign to protect the National Health Service.

Since the General Election, the British public has seen David Cameron break promise after promise on the NHS despite promising that it was a top priority.”

Labour’s petition to protect frontline services, launched today, calls on David Cameron to keep his promises to:

• Protect frontline NHS services;

• Stop precious NHS money being wasted on a big top-down reorganisation, which is putting the NHS at risk; and

• Provide the real increase he promised in NHS funding

The Conservative Party launched a similar petition in November 2009, but have backtracked since the General Election. Labour is calling on people from across the country to sign-up and send David Cameron and the Tory-led Government a message that they must keep their promises.

John Healey MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, launching Labour’s petition to protect the NHS, said:

“David Cameron promised to protect the NHS. He pledged to give the NHS a real rise in funding and stop top-down reorganisations that get in the way of patient care.

“But he’s scrapped Labour’s waiting time guarantees for hospital treatments and GP appointments, and he’s cutting frontline staff while wasting £2 billion on a reckless reorganisation.

“His plans for heath will open all parts of the NHS to free market competition and rip the “N” out of the NHS.

“When it comes to improving the nation’s health, all we have seen from David Cameron so far is broken promise after broken promise.

“People saw big improvements with Labour but they’re now seeing the NHS go backwards again under the Tories.

“So Labour is calling on David Cameron to keep his NHS promises. We’re launching a petition – at http://www.labouremail.org.uk/emails/ln/28073/2/15/3458/90a08077f443b476994ee76cf856dd2f/ – so the public can hold David Cameron to his promise to protect the NHS and stop the Tories’ damaging changes.”

Campaigning against police cuts

I was in Farnworth town centre at the weekend, campaigning against cuts made by the Tory/Lib Dem Government to Greater Manchester Police's budget which could mean the loss of 1387 front line police officers.

Many thanks to everyone who signed my petition against the cuts.

You can see more here or sign Labour's online petition here

Wrong Cuts, Wrong Time

Greater Manchester Police have announced 1,387 police officer jobs will be axed due to LibDem-Tory Government spending cuts.

At the General Election local Lib Dems promised more police officers. Now in Government they are cutting them.

This is not what you voted for. Greater Manchester deserves better.

Join Labour's campaign and sign the petition to help oppose cuts to Greater Manchester Police:

http://www.999wrongcutswrongtime.com/

Or join me in Farnworth town centre (near Asda) on Saturday 4th December at 1.00pm to sign the petition and oppose the cuts

Defending tenancy rights from the Tories

Tory plans could force tenants from their homes

David Cameron has voiced plans to ditch the rights of tenants who wish to remain in their homes for as long as they wish to.

The Tories, propped up by the Lib Dems, are planning to introduce “fixed term tenancies” – meaning that in future those living in council or housing association homes could be forced out after just five years’ tenancy.

Families need secure homes

Everyone wants a secure and affordable home where nobody has the right to force you to move.

A secure home helps you establish yourself in your community, in work and in education. It gives you a real stake in your neighbourhood and a reason to make a contribution.

Fixed term tenancies could mean families being forced out of their homes after as little as five years.

People forced to move might not be able to afford private housing in expensive areas. Being priced out of your own home town could mean leaving friends, family, school and work behind.

Support Labour's campaign

Go to www.campaignengineroom.org.uk to sign the petition against these plans.

VAT campaign

I took Labour’s campaign against the rise in VAT to Farnworth town centre at the weekend.


Joined by local activists I encouraged shoppers to sign a petition opposing the VAT rise from 17.5% to 20% announced in last week’s Budget.

The Tories are doing what they have always done in the past and raised VAT. It hits the poorest families the hardest, including pensioners, and it will be damaging to jobs and our economic recovery. This is on top of the cuts to tax credits and the freeze on child benefit.

The Liberal Democrats campaigned against a rise during the election but now they are supporting this VAT increase.

Why should those who can least afford it be made to suffer while bankers get away with taking massive bonuses?

I’m delighted with the positive response from people I spoke to in Farnworth on Saturday. They share my disgust at the Tories and Lib Dems plans.

I pledged during the election campaign that I would stand up for everyone in my constituency and that’s what I’m doing.

I will challenge the coalition Government when they are being unfair. That’s why I’m asking people to join me in opposing the hike in VAT.

My campaign for a pedestrian crossing on Loxham Street in Farnworth

Together with local residents I am campaigning for a new pedestrian crossing to be sited on Loxham Road in Farnworth.

Many parents and their children have to cross this very busy road in order to get to All Saints Primary School. Unfortunately there has been no school crossing patrol for some time now.

I am told by residents that there have been a number of 'near misses' between cars and pedestrians. I share their concern that it is only a matter of time before a serious accident happens. Mr. Shamim Azad is pictured here handing me a petition with over 400 names on it.

I'm pressing Bolton Council to look at the current situation and asking them to provide a crossing as soon as possible.

Rail improvements

I met Lord Adonis, the Secretary of State for Transport, at Bolton railway station recently for the official announcement of the Government’s plan for the electrification of the Manchester to Preston rail line.

The £200m electrification programme includes electrifying the 25 mile route between Manchester and Euxton Junction, allowing electric trains to operate between Manchester and Preston, via Bolton.

These improvements will be of great benefit to passengers. Electric trains are not only faster, more reliable and more comfortable, but they generate less carbon than their diesel counterparts.

Electrification can help to lower the costs of operating the railway since electric trains are generally cheaper to run than diesels and inflict less wear on tracks. The electric trains will be cleaner, producing no emissions at their point of use and lower carbon emissions overall.

Replacing existing diesel trains with longer electric trains will also deliver much needed extra capacity.

Midnight Memories Walk

Thank you to everybody who is sponsoring me in the Midnight Memories Walk on Saturday 13 June 2009 to raise money for Bolton Hospice.

UPDATE

The event was a great success and I look forward to participating in future fundraising activities.