East Jerusalem

11 May 2021

I feel tremendous sadness and anger watching the situation in East Jerusalem. The decision by the Israeli government to advance their settlement programme is not just illegal but hugely damaging to the chances of a future peace. The violence we have seen in recent days is also completely abhorrent and…

Read more →

Fur Trade Prohibition Bill

23 Apr 2021

This week in the House of Commons, my Labour colleague Taiwo Owatemi presented a Bill to ban the trade in fur, which I am proud to co-sponsor. You can watch part of her speech in the video below. Britain led the world when we banned fur production over twenty years…

Read more →

COVID Vaccination

09 Mar 2021

Dear Friends, I was delighted to receive my first COVID vaccination at The Arc Centre in Islington. The vaccine was quick and painless, and the centre was highly organised, safe and caring. Together we can fight coronavirus by making sure we get vaccinated and protect our community. It is so…

Read more →

Speech at War Child Panel

26 Jan 2021

I was very pleased to take part in a virtual panel today organised by the brilliant campaigning charity, War Child, called ‘A Force For Good In The World’, which looked at the role the UK should be playing across the globe in protecting children from the misery, suffering and death…

Read more →

Letter to the Secretary of State on Fire Safety

26 Jan 2021

I have been chasing Ministers for the past three years to take effective action on fire safety. I have written yet again to the Secretary of State, to make it clear to him that more government money is needed for renewing cladding and making blocks of flats safe – leaseholders…

Read more →

Letter to Liz Truss on International Human Rights Day

10 Dec 2020

On International Human Rights Day, I’ve written to Liz Truss, who – with her dual responsibility for trade and equalities – has so far wasted a historic opportunity to push our trade partners into greater recognition of LGBT+ rights, but can set that right as she pursues UK accession to…

Read more →

Trade Forum December 8: Session Four

07 Dec 2020

Dear Friends, In my last post before the virtual Trade Forum, “Building Britain’s Trading Future”, which will take place tomorrow, 8th December, I wanted to introduce you to our fourth and final panel, which will focus on “Protecting human rights through trade”. We will be hearing from an exceptional selection…

Read more →

Trade Forum December 8: Session Three

06 Dec 2020

Dear Friends, Today I want introduce to you the third session of the virtual Trade Forum I will be hosting this coming Tuesday 8th December, “Building Britain’s Trading Future”, which you can sign up to below. For the panel; “Building a Sustainable Trading Future”, we will be hearing from a…

Read more →

Trade Forum December 8: Session Two

05 Dec 2020

Dear Friends, As promised, today I am introducing the second session of the virtual Trade Forum which I wrote about yesterday; “Building Britain’s Trading Future”, which will take place next Tuesday 8th December, and which you can sign up to join below. In our second session; “Raising standards around the…

Read more →

Trade Forum December 8: Session One

04 Dec 2020

Dear Friends, Following our exit from the European Union, Britain will have to take responsibility for its own trade policy and securing its own trade agreements for the first time in fifty years. Five decades ago, the drivers of trade policy were almost exclusively economic and strategic. While such drivers…

Read more →

Trade Summit on Tuesday 8 December

01 Dec 2020

Dear Friends, I would like to invite you to a virtual Q&A panel discussion to discuss trade policy in a post Brexit Britain. I will be joined by UK and international leading figures, independent experts, lawyers, journalists, business people, and human rights and environmental activists. Our hope is to deepen…

Read more →

UK-Japan Deal

26 Nov 2020

Yesterday in the House, I confronted Liz Truss with her own Department’s report on the question she’s repeatedly refused to answer: what’s the difference, in pounds and pence, between her Japan deal and the EU-Japan deal it replaces? She didn’t look happy.

Read more →

BBC Question Time 19/11/2020

20 Nov 2020

Last night on BBC Question Time, we were asked about Boris Johnson’s comments that devolution has been a disaster, and I said it was high time we got back to talking about why devolution really matters – the chance for those in power to do more for people’s lives closer…

Read more →

Trade Orals 19/11/2020

19 Nov 2020

Biden on Yemen   Joe Biden has spoken powerfully about the murder of children in Yemen, and said US values should never again be sacrificed to sell arms to Saudi Arabia. Boris Johnson has a choice: will he stand with the President-elect or continue serving as an apologist for Mohammed…

Read more →

Continuity Deals

19 Nov 2020

Dear Friends, In the House earlier, I challenged Ministers over the sheer, bumbling incompetence that has left £80 billion of vital UK trade with Canada, Mexico, Singapore and 12 other countries at risk, with time running out to get Continuity Agreements in place with them before January 1st. As ever,…

Read more →

Ridge on Sunday 08/11/2020

19 Nov 2020

Britain can work with the Biden administration on green technology to create new jobs and save our planet, an opportunity we never had with climate change deniers in the White House.

Read more →

Labour Connected

19 Nov 2020

UK Trade with Colombia Dear Friends, Here is the final speech I am going to share with you from Labour Connected, which was made at an event organised by the TUC and Justice for Colombia on the Peace Process and Human Rights Situation in Colombia. In my speech, I set…

Read more →

Labour ‘Women’ Connected

19 Nov 2020

Gender and International Trade Dear Friends, Here is another speech from Labour’s online party conference that I wanted to share with you all. This was made as part of Labour’s ‘Women Connected’ event, in which I spoke about Gender and International Trade. In my speech, I discussed the UK’s responsibility…

Read more →

Labour Connected

19 Nov 2020

Open Labour Dear Friends, For those of you who couldn’t take part, I wanted to share some of the speeches I made at Labour’s online party conference, which took place instead of our usual Autumn gathering in Liverpool. First up was a speech I made to the Open Labour rally,…

Read more →

Tolpuddle Festival

19 Nov 2020

Workers’ Rights I was delighted to attend this year’s virtual Tolpuddle Festival for a session on human rights and trade, chaired by the Trades Union Congress’ Rosa Crawford.  I spoke about how the Tories are turning a blind eye to the abuse of workers’ rights in their desperation to fill…

Read more →