A new term, a new Prime minister and huge storms to navigate. As we prepare to go back to Parliament, the weeks and months ahead will be critical.

Energy crisis

The terrifying energy price hikes are at the forefront of our minds. They will be the most urgent priority for our new prime minister who, I am confident, will waste no time supporting the most vulnerable people in our society through our benefits system.  It is vital and right to do so.  

The government needs to organise a financial structure – a long-term debt instrument – to grapple with this possibly over many years. And although there is no reason why the state needs to own the electricity industry, we need total transparency of profits, earnings and efficiencies so that these companies operate wholly in the public interest.

Last week I welcomed the announcement by Centrica that they will donate 10% of British Gas Energy profits to help their customers struggling with domestic bills. Their actions are an example of how companies can take greater responsibility on rising household pressures but more initiatives must follow suit.

Meanwhile I know the great anxieties that exist in the Royal Town and will be actively engaging with the new ministerial team once they are announced.

Ramada / Penns Hall Hotel

I have received several emails expressing concerns about the use of Penns Hall Hotel to house asylum seekers. Amid reports of questionable behaviour by some individuals, I am in touch with the Home Office to try to ensure the numbers are kept low and temporary in this location. While of course it is right that asylum seekers while being processed should be spread over the country, I do not feel Penns Lane is suitable for this purpose.

There are also legitimate questions about the long-term future for this facility which has seen better days and is out of keeping with the local area and facilities.

I want to reassure constituents that I am looking into this and will update you on any progress. 

Alzheimer’s awareness month

September is Alzheimer’s awareness month. I'm proud to be supporting Alzheimer’s Research UK as a #DementiaResearchChampion. Every 3 minutes someone in the UK develops dementia. I know that many families in Sutton Coldfield have been touched by this debilitating disease and, having lost my father to Alzheimer’s some years ago, I’m all too familiar with its devastating effects.

I very much welcome the government’s newly launched Dementia Mission, which aims to speed up research into the development of new treatments. Central to this will be people’s involvement in clinical trials.

The UK has the potential to be a world-leader in delivering clinical trials and new treatments for dementia, but we can only achieve that if we break down the barriers that stop people from getting involved in research.

Over the next month I will be helping to spread the word about taking part in research, getting more people involved in trials and speeding up progress towards life-changing new dementia treatments. 

You can also find out more here: https://bit.ly/3C6I2pl

Vaccination Centre

I shall be visiting the vaccination centre at our Town Hall next Thursday (8 September) morning. I will be thanking Dr Rahul Daab and his team for their brilliant work, having recently hit the impressive milestone of 150,000 vaccinations. 

The Work of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Trafficked Britons in Syria (chaired by myself and Lord Jay – former Head of the Foreign Office and Britain’s most senior diplomat).

The latest revelations about security service collusion in respect of Ms Shamima Begum make alarming reading. It has been obvious from the outset that she and her foolish young friends were groomed. Now we discover that ministers knew she was a trafficking victim, transported by a terrorist group.

Whatever your view of the bad teenage choices she made and the circumstances in which she made them, it is surely unwise to leave her in the desert. She was born in Britain and trafficked, effectively for sex, at the age of 15 — below the lawful age of consent. And my goodness she has paid a price: three children dead, four years in a prison camp.

This is not about evading justice – far from it. It is ensuring that those women who have cases to answer do so in British courts. As the former Director of Global Counter Terrorism Operations at MI6, Richard Barrett said, we need to “either prosecute them or reintegrate them into society, working within a rule of law framework.” 

Our allies around the world including the US, Canada and Germany are doing precisely that. I hope the new government will rethink Britain’s approach.