Health & Wellbeing Board's first meeting

Last week I chaired the first meeting of the city's new Health & Wellbeing Board.

Health & Wellbeing Board's were formed following the government's NHS reforms and bring together local councils, Clinical Commissioning Groups, NHS England, HealthWatch and other partners.

At this first meeting we endorsed Closing the Gap, a new health strategy for the city.

Leicester Mercury article following the first Health & Wellbeing Board meeting.

New community gardening project in Eyres Monsell

We are pleased to be launching a new project in Eyres Monsell this week in partnership with BBC Radio Leicester.

As part of BBC Leicester's summer campaign to get more people growing their own food, we are launching 'Blooming Eyres Monsell.'

We want to get more people growing their own food in Eyres Monsell, which is good for health, can save money on shopping bills and is good fun for families.

BBC Radio Leicester's Ben Jackson and Ady Dayman will be visiting Eyres Monsell to give away seeds to local residents to help get thing started. These seeds are for tomatoes, lettuce, sweetcorn and runner beans. As councillors we have agreed to fund some gardening starter kits including pots and tools.

This project will also see the creation of a new community vegetable patch at Eyres Monsell Community Centre. We are looking for residents and volunteers to help with this.

To get your free seeds and to find out more about this project come along to Eyres Monsell Community Centre tomorrow (Wednesday 17 April) from 5:30pm.

BBC Radio Leicester's Ben Jackson and gardener Ady Dayman will be there to answer your questions and help get this project started.

With BBC gardener Ady Dayman, fellow
Councillor Virginia Cleaver and BBC Leicester's Ben Jackson
at Eyres Monsell Community Centre.

Lord Willy Bach gives backing to Rory

Lord Willy Bach, Labour Peer and former Justice Minister is supporting my campaign:

'I have campaigned alongside Rory Palmer and I know he has the experience and values to be a strong member of Labour's European team in the East Midlands.'

'He understands the challenges facing the region and I know he will be an effective parliamentarian in Brussels.'

'I am pleased to be supporting his campaign.'

Tweet your support: #Rory1forEastMids

#Labourdoorstep in Northampton & Leicestershire

It was good to be in Northampton this weekend to support our county council candidates.

I joined our excellent county council candidates Rhea Keehn (Delapre & Rushmere) and Ben Wesson (Boothville & Parklands).  We had a good response on the doorsteps. Good luck to Labour's candidates in Northamptonshire and across the East Midlands for these weeks of the campaign.

Campaigning for Rhea Keehn in Northampton, with my friend
and colleague from Nottingham Labour, Alex Norris.

Campaigning for Ben Wesson in Northampton.

I also joined the campaign again in Leicestershire this weekend, this time in South Leicestershire for county council candidate Amanda Hack.

Labour campaign team with our
candidate Amanda Hack in Enderby, Leicestershire.

Former MEP Mel Read supports my campaign

I am delighted to have the support of former East Midlands Labour MEP Mel Read in my campaign for the European Parliament.

Mel was a member of the European Parliament for fifteen years from 1989-2004. I am proud to have her support and endorsement for my campaign to be a Labour MEP.

Tweet your support: #Rory1forEastMids

Local Labour members back Rory

Earlier this week it was announced that I would be a Labour candidate in the East Midlands for next year's European Parliament elections.

I am really grateful for the messages of support I have received from Labour members and activists from across the region.

The Labour Party Branch in Eyres Monsell and Freemen - where I am a councillor - met this week. I am pleased and proud to have the support of members of the branch.

Members of Eyres Monsell & Freemen Branch Labour Party
supporting my campaign.

Pictured are fellow city councillors Virginia Cleaver, Bill Shelton and Ted Cassidy.

Later in the week members at Leicester South Labour Party backed my campaign.

Virginia Cleaver, Labour councillor for Eyres Monsell:
'As Rory's co-councillor in Eyres Monsell I know how committed he is to speaking up for the people he represented. He is tireless in his work to improve things for people and the community.'

I know Rory well and have campaigned and worked with him closely. He will be a strong addition to Labour's team in Europe. He will be an excellent MEP for our region.'

Gavin George, Secretary of Leicester South Labour Party:
'As Rory's Election Agent for Eyres Monsell I know how hard working and dedicated he is. As a fellow CLP Officer Rory is a campaigning politician who listens to, and speaks for, the communities he serves.'

Tweet your support: #Rory1forEastMids

European elections 2014: Ready to win for our region

The Labour Party has announced its candidates for the European Parliament elections which will take place next year.

I am pleased and proud to have been selected as a Labour candidate in the East Midlands.

Congratulations to all of the Labour candidates selected for these elections. Our teams of candidates in all regions are strong and experienced. I am really looking forward to campaigning as part of our team in the East Midlands.

Next year’s European elections are really important. They are important for the East Midlands, for the country and for Labour. 

I was born and bred in the East Midlands. This is the region where I live and work. 

I know how important it is to have strong Labour representatives working for our communities at every level, from town halls to Whitehall and in Europe.

Europe matters to all of us. We won’t get jobs and growth in Britain without growth in Europe. Europe matters if like me, people are worried and angry about the youth unemployment crisis. 

Europe matters in securing jobs and investment in the region and it matters if you care about our public services and our rights as citizens, consumers and workers. 

My politics is about lifting living standards and tackling poverty; to do this we need a fairer future in the East Midlands. 

To secure that fairer and better future we need to have a strong Labour team speaking up for our region in Europe. I will be working tirelessly over the coming months to join Glenis Willmott in the European Parliament to speak up for our region and pursue the issues that matter to people across the East Midlands.

I have the experience, commitment and ideas to be a strong and effective voice for the East Midlands in Europe. 

I am ready to win a fairer and better deal for the East Midlands in Europe.
I am ready to work with our members and supporters to win for Labour in our region.

Tweet your support: #Rory1forEastMids

Our Healthy City: launching council's new public health work

From 1 April the city council took on new public health responsibilities. These responsibilities transfer to the council from the NHS Primary Care Trust as a result of the government's re-organisation of the health service.

The government's re-organisation of the NHS remains controversial and politically divisive. In my view the transfer of public health responsibilities presents an important opportunity for local government. There has been a close relationship between local government and public health ever since Victorian times; local government used to be responsible for public health functions.

In my view the big opportunity now is to embed a new public health approach across all the core services of the council. There are significant health inequalities in Leicester and I am determined that we adopt a renewed and determined approach to these trends. Health inequalities are interwoven with wider socio-economic inequalities, poverty and disadvantage. We need to see truly joined-up approaches across the council and that's what I am determined to see happen in Leicester.

Next week I will chair the first formal meeting in public of the city's new Health and Wellbeing Board where partners will adopt the new Health and Wellbeing Strategy for the city. This strategy sets out five strategic priorities. I will write more about this next week.

On Friday we launched the council's new public health agenda, Our Healthy City, with a live healthy cooking demonstration in Leicester Market. Our first public health campaign is about healthier eating, encouraging people to make small changes in their diet to eat more healthily. This campaign started yesterday with hundreds of free bags of fresh vegetables and recipe cards given away. There will be similar events over the next few months in communities across the city.

Launching Our Healthy City by cooking a
healthy curry at Leicester Market.

For more information about Our Healthy City, the new Health & Wellbeing Board and the council's approach to public health see www.leicester.gov.uk/ourhealthycity

The Our Healthy City vegetable curry recipe:

April Fools' Day was no joke

For those of us who care about living standards Monday of this week, 1 April, was no joke. April Fools’ Day it may have been but for people on the receiving end of the government’s savage clobbering of the welfare system that day will have very real consequences.

As if that were not enough, a day later we see coalition ministers apparently considering freezing or cutting the national minimum wage. This was well past the threshold for April Fools’ Day wind-ups. Freezing or cutting the national minimum wage would be outrageous and would have a devastating impact on living standards.

As the government was setting about wrecking the welfare system, this week, Labour-led Leicester city council increased the pay of 1,100 staff to the level of the living wage. This includes over 280 kitchen assistants and 270 cleaners. We committed to this in our manifesto, it was recommended by the Leicester Child Poverty Commission and I am pleased we have delivered it.

It won’t stop the coalition’s devastating welfare changes but it will make some difference to those workers and their families. It will strengthen our hand in encouraging other employers to pay the living wage. We have seen strong campaigns for the living wage. In Leicester, Labour Students at the university have run an excellent campaign and there are many others like it across the country. This movement needs to continue with energy and determination.

The living wage has become a practical example of how Labour councils are doing their bit to help and deliver fairness in these tough times. As the coalition continues to create hardship and misery for hard-pressed families it will fall to Labour councils to help. It will fall to the next Labour government to pick up the pieces. The living wage can play a big part in this. As Labour we have always, and will always, be about lifting living standards and protecting workers from poverty pay.

There is a compelling argument for the living wage to be central to Labour’s economic and social priorities and a cornerstone of our next manifesto. We have to make the case for the living wage but it now seems to do that we may have to fight to defend the minimum wage: this argument is one and the same.
It is an argument we must win.

This article was published by Progress, 5 April 2013.

By-election campaigning and success in Nottingham

It was good to join friends in Nottingham on Thursday campaigning on polling day in the Wollaton East and Lenton Abbey council by-election.

Congratulations to newly elected Labour councillors in Nottingham Sam Webster and Wendy Smith (Bilborough ward) and well done to the Nottingham Labour team.

I am looking forward to more by-election campaigning in the coming weeks as we aim to get Vijay Riyait elected in Leicester's Abbey ward by-election. I will be also be joining Labour colleagues campaigning in the upcoming county council elections as well.

From Nottingham Labour by-election leaflet.