A journalist asked me the other day how my constituents are feeling about Brexit. I replied that judging by my inbox they are pretty much split down the middle. On the one hand, people say ‘I just want out’ while on the other people plead ‘Can’t you stop Brexit?’ And…

Between April and September this year, the Trussell Trust – the UK’s largest emergency food provider – gave 658,048 food parcels to people in crisis. If someone had suggested, say, 40 years ago that so many of our fellow citizens would need to go up to a complete stranger and…

Nowadays, barely an advice surgery of mine goes by without someone asking for help with their personal independence payment (PIP). PIP has replaced the old disability living allowance and as a result many people are going through new assessments. Mainly, people come about decisions to refuse them PIP or to…

It is a great honour to have been invited to give this the third Harold Wilson Memorial lecture here at the University of Bradford with which he had such a long and close association. Little did I know when, as an 11 year-old, I attended a Labour Party rally in…