What a brilliant week it was for Birmingham. We were treated to the Queen’s Baton Relay in the run up to the beginning of the Games on Thursday. After travelling through the Commonwealth countries, all over the UK and it then reached Birmingham. The Baton passed by many Ladywood landmarks including St Andrews, the Soho Road and the Jewellery Quarter. I caught it at Villa Park just before it made its way to Alexander Stadium for the opening ceremony.  

We kicked off the Games in style with an epic opening ceremony. With personal highlights including Team England’s entrance and that brilliant mechanical bull! It really was a showcase of Birmingham at its best and made me so proud to be a Brummie. I’m really excited for a fortnight of amazing sport and hope everyone gets involved in all the events taking place right across the city and maybe even experiences a sport they have never seen before. 

In Westminster, the Tory leadership contest continues to heat up with Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak continuing to tear lumps out of each other, whilst the country is struggling to cope with 12 years of Tory failure. Truss and Sunak backed every decision that broke our economy and voted for every one of Boris Johnson’s 15 tax rises, but neither has an answer to the cost of living crisis or a plan to fix our economy. Labour will take full advantage of the Conservatives trashing their own record whenever a General Election comes around. Only Labour will provide the fresh start Britain needs. I spoke to the Huffington Post – read more of my comments here: https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/tory-leadership-race-is-giving-us-a-wealth-of-material-labour-party-says_uk_62dfb2c8e4b0a6852c3c0429?9ij&fbclid=IwAR1lmUfNYbP1uj2aHkCo1xFOT_pobUI8_mSIoBIolmMNAp4MH_wSWl4mkL8  

Fantastic to see that Newbigin Community Trust secured a grant from Historic England to teach young people blacksmithing and the industrial history of Winson Green and Handsworth. Find out more here: https://historicengland.org.uk/whats-new/news/funding-projects-untold-stories-working-class-heritage/  

This week, I reflected on the work my team and I have done so far this year. After years of campaigning we convinced the Government to put legal protections in place to ensure that leaseholders are not made to pay to fix costs to remediate cladding defects. We also finally got the Government to announce that they would be tightening the regulations to make it harder for bad landlords to keep destroying our neighbourhoods. They took many of my recommendations on board and have been drawing on the experience of Brummies as they draft their policy. 

We have also resolved over 3,500 cases for Birmingham Ladywood constituents! We work on everything from housing to immigration, waste collections and antisocial behaviour. If there is anything you need help or support with do contact shabana.mahmood.mp@parliament.uk and we’ll do everything we can.