Rushanara Ali

Today we commemorate the anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street. 82 years have passed since thousands of East Londoners stood together against fascism and intolerance.

On this day in 1936 the Jewish community of East London and its allies blocked the streets in order to prevent Oswald Mosley and his British Union of Fascists marching through in what became known as the Battle for Cable Street.

On 3rd March, Rushanara Ali, visited the Whitechapel section of the Crossrail development. Given a tour of the tunnel, eastbound and west bound platforms and renovation of original entrance by Crossrail’s Chief Executive, Andrew Wolstenholme OBE, this was Rushanara’s second trip to the site, following an initial visit in November 2013.

On Friday 7th April, the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) published its report on children’s social care in Tower Hamlets. The report found that “there are widespread and serious failures in the services provided to children who need help and protection in Tower Hamlets. As a result, too many children remain in situations of actual or potential harm for too long.” Ofsted, therefore, gave the service an overall rating of “inadequate”.

Local leaders, volunteers and relatives marked the 74th anniversary of the Bethnal Green tube disaster on Sunday 5th March during a Memorial Service at St John Church. The memorial service marked the tragedy that befell those that sought shelter in the tube station on the 3rd March 1943, during the Second World War when 173 people died and around 300 people became trapped after a large crowd attempted to find shelter in the tube station during an air raid. The Bethnal Green tube disaster was the biggest loss of civilian life during the Second World War.

School governors of a Tower Hamlets primary school proposed this week to change the name from Osmani School to Vallance Primary.

Some 600 flats occupied by some 3,000 residents on the Ocean Estate in Tower Hamlets were recently left without hot water and heating for a week during one of the coldest periods of the year. With no alternative accommodation offered to vulnerable residents at a time of near freezing temperatures following the breakdown of the district heating system, Rushanara Ali MP has referred East Thames to the Housing Regulator, the Housing and Communities Agency, to ensure that lessons are learnt and this doesn’t happen again.

Rushanara Ali MP has called the publication of funding figures for mental health services of children and young people a ‘disgrace’ after the Royal College of Psychiatrists revealed that only £4.45 per head had been allocated in Tower Hamlets for the whole of the 2016/17 financial year.

Residents carrying umbrellas indoors because of leaking ceilings, a heavy heater falling off a wall near small children playing on the floor, lifts breaking down on a weekly basis, and 30 flats left without light for weeks. These are the ‘life-threatening’ and ‘shoddy’ repair and maintenance services of the Circle Housing Group in Tower Hamlets.

Brexit must not mean exit for Britain’s banks. That was the message to the Prime Minister this week from Rushanara Ali MP. Many major banks are threatening to relocate their British headquarters from Canary Wharf and the City of London to Dublin, Frankfurt or Madrid following the referendum to leave the EU. Some may move as soon as 2017. The head of the British Bankers’ Association has warned that as many as 70,000 jobs are at risk.