ECHO COLUMN: Local elections 2024 - voting for the first North East Mayor and an opportunity for change.



In the midst of a Conservative-inflicted cost-of-living crisis, housing stock shortage and the North East experiencing the worst child poverty levels in the country, voters will be going to the polls on the 2nd of May.

It's high time Government was held accountable for the crisis in mental health provision.

Tories are bulldozing workers' rights

Rare Disease Day provided opportunity to shine light on lesser-known conditions that need for highly specialised treatments.

This Tuesday was Rare Disease Day.

The 28th of February provided the opportunity for us to shine a light on conditions that are lesser known but carry with them complex symptoms and a need for highly specialised treatments.

ECHO COLUMN

A Tory PM - This is not what integrity, professionalism and accountability look like.

Patients are paying the price for 13 years of Conservative mismanagement of the NHS.

Yesterday, my colleague Wes Streeting MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, made a scathing assessment of the Conservative Government’s record with our NHS.

The damage that the Conservative Party has done to our country has been immense.

While the economic shocks from Covid-19 and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could not be predicted, Britain is lagging in its recovery compared to our G7 counterparts.

Sunak promised professionalism; his premiership so far is 'a professional car crash'

In another example of the merry-go-round that is Tory government these days, Rishi Sunak, after jumping ship as Chancellor three months ago and personally putting the last nail in the coffin of Boris Johnson’s stint as Prime Minister, has returned to Downing Street as the latest captain of the sleaze and scandal-ridden sinking ship that is this Tory government.

Tories are making life harder for people every day they are in office.

The kamikaze budget will have significant repercussions for household bills, budgets and the future of the country.

Labour will sort out backlog and put patients at core of NHS.



When my constituent Adam (his name has been changed to protect his privacy) asked for an appointment with a doctor, he was made to wait three months. At the consultation he was told he needed a full hip replacement and that he would have to wait another nine months for a surgery date. Six months later, he called the hospital to ask when that date might be. The hospital told him that he would have to wait a further twelve months.