Rushanara Ali MP

On 15 March 2019, there was a horrific terrorist attack in two mosques in the New Zealand city of Christchurch. 

Since 1952, February 21st has been commemorated by the people of Bangladesh, and Bengalis around the world, as Language Martyrs Day, after student demonstrators from East Pakistan were killed by Pakistani police, whilst protesting for Bangla to be preserved as an official language of Pakistan.

These students are celebrated as martyrs, with their deaths being seen not only as leading to the preservation of the Bangla language, but also being the start of the struggle for Bangladesh independence.

The Times has reported that Shamima Begum who fled the UK to join IS in 2015 was recently found in a camp in Syria.

On Friday 25 January a video circulated on social media showing a man making offensive and racist comments outside Central Foundation Girls’ School.

Over the last few weeks, Rushanara Ali MP has questioned the Government over their use of non-disclosure agreements, which prevent organisations and businesses from revealing any information related to contingency plans drawn up by Government departments in no deal Brexit preparations.

Following Rushanra’s enquiries, the Government admitted to using NDAs in a number of departments, including the Department of Health and Social Care and the Department for Exiting the European Union.

On Wednesday 16 January, Theresa May's Brexit Withdrawal Agreement was voted down by MPs in a landmark defeat for the Government. 

The Government lost the vote by a margin of 202 to 432, with the majority of 230 being a record defeat in the Commons in the modern political era. 

Last week, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Amber Rudd MP, announced plans to cancel the ‘two-child limit’ benefits cap for families with three or more children born before April 2017.  This U-turn comes after a cross party campaign by MPs, the Church of England and the Child Poverty Action Group. Over 100 MP’s signed a letter facilitated by Rushanara Ali MP in October, urging PM Theresa May, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Phillip Hammond MP and the then Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Esther McVey MP, to reconsider the two-child limit policy.

On Thursday 20 December, Rushanara Ali MP, Co-Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Democracy in Burma and the Rights of Rohingya, called on the Government to apply greater pressure on the Burmese military and government to protect Rohingya Muslims.  

Earlier today the police were called to an incident after three people were stabbed and injured at a health centre on St Stephen’s Road in Tower Hamlets.

On Friday 2 November, the East End lost of one its brightest radical flames. My friend Max Levitas died at the age of 103, after a long life of community service and activism. Max’s roots were in the old Jewish East End of Whitechapel and Stepney, amongst the refugees from Russia and Poland, and in the Communist Party before the war.