Dear John,

This week we saw backbench Conservative MP’s finally take heed of Labour’s calls and put Boris Johnson’s leadership to a vote. Just last week I wrote to my neighbouring Conservative colleagues, James Morris MP and Gary Sambrook MP imploring them to call on Boris Johnson to resign. This might not be easy, but it is the right thing to do for our country. 
 
This was the Conservative Party’s opportunity to listen to the British public. They have made it clear; they’re fed up with a Prime Minister who promises big but never delivers. Fed up with a Prime Minister who has presided over a culture of lies and lawbreaking at the heart of government. Fed up with a Prime Minister who is utterly unfit for the great office he holds.  
 
Conservative MPs made their choice and they ignored the British public and hitched themselves and their party firmly to Boris Johnson and all he represents. Labour won’t get everything right, but I promise that when we don’t, we will always be honest with you and treat you with the respect you deserve from your politicians. 
 
I promise that together we will end the farce we have seen in recent months, that we will once again put the country first, get rid of this tired, out of touch government and get Britain back on track. 

This week we’ve seen the Conservative Party’s own ministers' step forward to point out their atrocious failings when it comes to our NHS. Culture Secretary, Nadine Dorries, said that successive Conservative Governments left our health service “wanting and inadequate” when the pandemic hit. What I found particularly scathing about this attack was that it is entirely true. 
 
The Prime Minister has also been told by the Health Secretary that he can never deliver on his promise of 6000 new GPs, leaving those who need vital NHS services in the lurch. 
 
For over a decade, waiting times for cancer care have been going up. The Governments solution was supposed to be diagnostic hubs, but since they opened last year, 135,000 extra people are now waiting for scans and tests. This means figures now total 1.208 million patients on waiting lists for diagnostic scans and tests. The NHS target is that no one should wait more than 6 weeks for scans and tests, but 267,000 patients have been waiting longer, 40,000 more than in July. 
  
Cancer waiting times have worsened every year since the Conservatives came to office in 2010, with 1 in 3 patients today waiting more than the recommended two months between being urgently referred by GPs until they start their treatment. 
 
But what would Labour do? Your next Labour Government will:  
 
1) invest in quality healthcare with the staff, modern equipment and technology needed to bring waiting times down and we’ll confront the shocking health inequalities that leave those who are poorest, more likely to be less healthy, more likely to die sooner and were the most badly affected by Covid.  
2) guarantee mental health treatment within a month for all who need it, see a radical expansion of the mental health workforce, resulting in over a million more people receiving support each year, alongside unprecedented investment in children’s mental health after the disruption of the pandemic. 
3) will deliver the biggest children’s health and wellbeing programme ever seen - supporting children through every stage of their development, whether physical or mental. 
4) fix social care so that those who need it aren’t going without care. We’ll do this through ensuring that more people can access care and ensuring that people can live in their homes for longer, supported by carers paid the real living wage of £10 an hour they deserve. 

As Shadow Cabinet Minister for International Development, the neglect by the Government for people in Afghanistan has been extremely worrying. Almost a year since the fall of Kabul, the Government has forgotten about Afghanistan. No government minister has visited the country since its fall, the delivery of aid has been painfully slow, and the international pledging conference, hosted by the UK, fell more than $2 billion short. 
 
This week David Lammy and I have been in Afghanistan to see for ourselves the reality for the Afghan people and the good that UK aid can and does do. At a visit to a maternity hospital, I saw the incredible work that UNFPA supports to help prevent maternal deaths, in spite of cuts of 85% by this Conservative government. 
 
With hard-won rights in reverse, some of the highest maternal mortality rates on earth, and a lethal humanitarian and economic crisis, we must not let 20 years of progress go to waste. 
 
The UK government must set out a comprehensive strategy for its engagement with Afghanistan, with women at its heart, to tackle the cause and symptoms of the humanitarian crisis. 
 
This is also an issue that is affecting so many of my constituents and so before I left, I spoke to ITV Central about my expectations for the trip. I also introduced them to Ayesha, a resident in our constituency, who spoke about her concerns and worries for her family members in Afghanistan.