Dear John,

As England dispensed with legal restrictions this week, Government Covid policy has been in disarray. With businesses closing, more than a million children off school last week and half a million self-isolating, "freedom day" was anything but for many of us. 

In the space of a few days, government ministers contradicted each other on their self-isolation policies. First the business minister said the NHS Covid-19 app was an advisory tool only. Another then said the app is just to allow people to make 'informed decisions'. Then the Prime Minister was back to urging people to isolate when pinged, having tried to dodge self-isolation himself, along with the Chancellor Rishi Sunak, only that weekend.

People will rightly be dismayed at the Government's chaotic decision-making which is causing confusion and uncertainty for businesses and public services, and undermining public health measures to manage the virus, keep the country moving and keep people safe.

With rumours that the Government is drawing up a list of 'critical workers' who might be exempted from having to self-isolate provided they have received both doses of the vaccine, I am keen to hear from constituents on how the current rise in Covid cases in affecting them and how I can help.

This week I launched the Hidden Heroes campaign with Zehra Zaidi from We Too Built Britain and Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat. The Hidden Heroes campaign calls for new statues of under-recognised and under-represented figures from history to be installed across Britain.

Recent debates about statues have focused on the negative and been deeply polarising. Instead of fighting over which of them to tear down, it is my view that it is better to think about the people from our history who are missing from that conversation and who deserve more recognition. This can be an opportunity to celebrate all the people who have helped to shape our nation.
 
Currently, fewer than 3 per cent of the statues in the UK are of ordinary, non-royal women, with other categories such as ethnic minorities receiving even worse representation.
 
The Hidden Heroes campaign is looking to celebrate British heroes that we can all be inspired by. It is also calling on local people to nominate those who deserve to be remembered with a statue. Some might be figures that history has neglected; others might be local heroes whose stories inspire their community.
 
My personal hero is Sophia Duleep Singh, the daughter of Maharaja Duleep Singh (the last Maharaja of the Sikh empire) and a goddaughter of Queen Victoria. She is a person for whom I am leading the call to have her statue built and erected in a place of prominence so that all people can recognise her achievements.
 
Amongst all the statues and memorials to suffragettes, there are no statues of ethnic minority women. This is despite the presence of several Indian suffragettes, most prominently Sophia.
 
The consequence of this lack of this lack of visibility is that there is little public knowledge of the massive contribution she made to the fight for equality or her role during the Second World War.
 
Earlier this week, I spoke to ITV Central about the campaign. You can watch a clip by clicking the image above. I also joined with Tom to write about the campaign in The Times at the link below.
 
If you would like to nominate an important figure that has inspired you, please email me at [email protected].

Last week, two days of scheduled surgeries had to be cancelled at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, including cancer operations and liver transplants, due to the rise of Covid admissions.

I have raised concerns about cancer care backlogs in Birmingham for a long time. Particularly concerning is our local record on cancer surgeries.

The NHS target is for 94% of cancer patients to receive surgery within 31 days of a decision on how to treat them. In the latest batch of statistics, Birmingham and Solihull had improved to 72.6%, up from 62.1% in April and an unprecedented low of 44.3% in March.

While it is positive to see this improvement, I am concerned about what increasing Covid admissions will mean for patients with other serious illnesses at a time when national waiting lists are at an all-time high.

Moreover, I also have concerns about reports that a staggering 1,091 staff absent from work at the QE, of which a quarter, 275, have been instructed to isolate or are sick with Covid-19. Elsewhere in the country, exhausted NHS staff are being told to cancel holidays.

It is my opinion that this is getting completely out of hand. That is why I wrote to the new health secretary, Savid Javid, to chase a response to my two previous letters to the Government about this crisis from March and April.

The health secretary said last week that “I do not believe that infection rates will put unsustainable pressure on the NHS.” I think that constituents who are already having vital surgeries cancelled would disagree. 

I have asked the health secretary to share his projections for hospitalisations in Birmingham over the summer so we can understand the full impact on the NHS from Government Covid policy, reiterated my call for support to address the staffing crisis, to get a handle on runaway infection rates, and support our local hospitals to manage this new wave.

This week I spoke to the Overseas Development Institute to set out my vision for global development with Labour.

Whether it be the pandemic, the climate crisis or rising poverty and inequality, the challenges facing the world right now are vast.

Yet even as their scale often escapes comprehension, in the UK we recognise our duty to tackle them – not only because they make us all less safe at home and abroad, but because they mirror so many of the challenges our families and communities know only too well.

I spoke to Sara Pantuliano from the ODI this week to talk about why I believe we can build on this solidarity to achieve a sustainable world, delivered locally (click the image above to watch the interview).

While Labour’s immediate focus will remain the health, economic and social impacts of the Covid pandemic, over the next year I have committed to set out a bold and positive policy platform focused on five longer-term priorities to tackle the global problems facing us all: humanitarian support; climate and nature; social protections and public services; gender equality; and jobs and opportunities.

The weather this week has reached extraordinarily high temperatures leading  the Met Office to issue an extreme weather warning in our area. I hope everyone is taking care of each other with some people being more vulnerable to the heat.

I have also been speaking with Severn Trent who have provided an update on water supplies. With the onset of the school holidays, more people at home and the exceptionally high temperatures, demand for water in the Midlands has increased sharply this week. We’ve seen a huge spike in usage with people, on average, using up to 40 per cent more water each day.  

While reservoir levels currently look healthy, Severn Trent is asking everyone to play their part by reducing the amount of water they use for the next few days and have shared some top tips:

• If you do use a paddling pool, try to cover it so you can use it again the next day, and when finished, re-use the water in your garden.
• Don't worry about watering the lawn, they're great survivors and it'll bounce back when it rains.
• Have a quick shower rather than a bath to cool down.
• Avoid washing the car if you can. If you need to, use a bucket and sponge rather than a hose.
• Simply hang up the hose, jet washer or sprinkler for the rest of the week as these high-volume devices can use up lots of water in a short space of time.
• Turn off taps when not in use.