Petition Response
We have now received a response to our petition, which you can read below.
I will be continuing to push the Government on this and call for the meaningful change residents of Southgate and Wood Green deserve.
Archive for year: 2026
Celebrating North Middlesex Uni Hospital
This post is dedicated to the wonderful NHS team at North Middlesex University Hospital and all their hard work.
To celebrate International Nurses Day, I visited the North Mid to meet some of their fantastic nursing team on an inpatient ward and in the A&E department.
It was lovely to see the kindness, compassion, and care they gave to patients, as well as the organisation and planning that goes into running a hospital smoothly.
Thank you to each and every incredible nurse across Southgate & Wood Green.
Southgate Celebrates Festival
Let’s celebrate Southgate!
It was wonderful to join Southgate District Civic Voice at their celebratory festival in Southgate’s Pocket Park.
This fantastic community event brought residents together through art, culture, and creativity and offered free workshops for all ages. It was wonderful to see so many people from across the community coming together to celebrate local talent and enjoy such a vibrant and welcoming event. Initiatives like this play a vital role in strengthening community spirit and supporting Southgate’s cultural life.
Well done Southgate District Civic Voice!
New Towns Draft Programme Consultation
Please read my contribution to the New Towns Draft Programme Consultation.
Government Announces New Specialist Unit
This morning, the Home Office have announced a new, specialist unit to target shops on our high streets acting as fronts for illegal activity. This is backed by a £20m investment to create the National Crime Agency team dedicated to cracking down on criminal activity.
Last month, I presented our petition from local residents in Enfield and Haringey calling for more action from the Government to crack down on this issue and support our local community.
While this step forward is welcome, I will continue to call for increased powers for local authorities to tackle this growing issue. on our high streets.
Learn more about the unit here.
Mental Health Awareness Week
This week is Mental Health Awareness Week, and the theme this year is action, because while awareness matters, real change only comes when we act on it.
To mark this, I met with my constituent, Alina Marinca, who has just finished an outstanding research project on children’s mental health. Too many young people in our community are struggling to access the support they need, whether through schools, GPs or specialist services, and the waiting times have been too long for too many years. I wanted to hear directly about their experience and what needs to change to deliver more effective mental health support for our young people. From speaking to Alina, it was insightful to hear more about the impacts of sleep disturbance as an underlying factor for many mental health conditions, and the role that social media can play in impacting mental health.
If you or your family are affected by mental health difficulties, I would encourage you to reach out. You can contact your GP, or call the NHS mental health helpline on 111 and select the mental health option.
Young people can also access support through Young Minds (youngminds.org.uk) or by texting YM to 85258. And as always, if you would like to discuss mental health services in our area or share your insights, please do send me an email.
Debt Relief Roundtable with the Zambian High Commission
Today, I visited the Zambian High Commission, to speak to members of the African Union Heads of Mission about my Debt Relief (Developing Countries) Private Member’s Bill. The discussion provided a good opportunity to get together with civil society groups and High Commissioners, and work together on bringing the Bill to the forefront of debate on international development in the new parliamentary session.
Many low and middle-income countries are spending more on servicing their debt than on healthcare or education, at a time when the withdrawal of US development funding is leaving the poorest nations more exposed to crises than at any point in recent memory. My Bill seeks to regulate the recovery of sovereign debts owed by developing countries, preventing private creditors from using UK courts to extract full repayment from nations that have defaulted on unsustainable debt and agreed new repayment terms with bilateral or multilateral creditors, building on the principles established by the original Debt Relief (Developing Countries) Act 2010 that was implemented by former Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
With the King’s Speech this week confirming that the Government will use next year’s G20 Presidency to drive global growth and reinforce global stability, I will be pressing for debt relief to be a central part of that agenda, and I look forward to reintroducing the Bill in this new parliamentary session.
Meeting with Director of Education Cannot Wait
It was great to meet with Maysa Jalbout, the new Director of Education Cannot Wait, the UN’s global fund for education in emergencies, to discuss the UK’s ongoing commitment to children whose education has been disrupted by conflict, displacement, and climate disasters.
The UK is a founding donor of ECW and has committed £80 million over the period 2023 to 2026, making it the fund’s second-largest donor after Germany. Since its inception, ECW has reached 14 million children across 33 crisis-affected countries, with over half of them being girls.
At a time when more than 230 million school-age children worldwide are affected by crises, the work of ECW has never been more important. As Chair of the APPG for Global Education, I will continue to press for the UK to maintain its leadership on this issue, and I look forward to working with parliamentarians and civil society leaders to ensure education in emergencies remains a priority as the UK prepares to host the G20 Summit next year.