Big step forward for our borough as the 83 service will run 24 hours a day Thursday to Saturday, linking Manchester, Failsworth, Hollinwood, Werneth & Oldham town centre. A proper night bus to get people to work at night, home safely, and give a real boost to our night time economy.

Across the Bee Network, services are expanding fast. In the year to March 2025, distance covered grew more than twice the national average, with another 2.5 million kilometres being added.

This is only possible because Greater Manchester took back control of buses, the first place to do so in 40 years.

After Andy Burnham set out plans for a decade of good growth backed by at least £500m, taking the GM Good Growth Fund close to £2bn, we are getting on with delivering it.

£2 fares extended, free travel for the 8,000 children in temporary accommodation, and a network that is affordable, accessible, connected, and clean. Buses run in the public interest, better services for our community.

A big moment for Oldham yesterday as Tommyfield market closed its doors ahead of the new indoor market opening next week.

For generations, Tommyfield has been at the heart of our town. Our market charter dates back to 1849, serving a booming industrial Oldham and the thousands of families who built this place. That history matters, it always will.

But if we want a strong future, we have to invest in it. This investment brings our market right into the centre of town where it belongs, alongside shops, food, events, and good transport links.

But above all, it’s people that make places. Our market is our town on display, the familar faces, the characters and exchanges, the strong sense of community. And we need the community to back it and the wider town centres and its traders for them to thrive.

A new chapter is about to begin. A modern indoor market in the heart of our borough, with traders moving into a stronger, busier location, backed by new outdoor space in George Square and support to help them thrive.

Thank you to the traders who have been part of Tommyfield’s story and who will carry it forward into the next chapter.

A quick round-up of my week in down in Westminster

𝐒𝐭. 𝐏𝐚𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐬 𝐃𝐚𝐲 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐈𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐡 𝐄𝐦𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐲

It was wonderful to spend time with friends at the Irish Embassy this week celebrating St. Patricks Day, thank you for having me.

𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬

Labour is boosting apprenticeships with the expansion of the Youth Guarantee. I started as an apprentice & I know they work. But in 2024 only 16% of vacancies were advertised in the two months as school leavers were finishing exams. If we aligned vacancies with the moment young people were leaving school, more would benefit and not wait months on end to be settled.

𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐬 𝐟𝐚𝐥𝐥

When we came to government, we said we’d drive a sea change in the way we approached the early years. This week’s statistics show progress: childcare costs halved, working parents now saving £8,000 a year, and the cost of a childcare place dropped back to 2005 levels. That is fighting the cost-of-living in action.

𝐔𝐤𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧

It was a pleasure to meet with Ukrainian MPs visiting parliament this week with the Inter-Parliamentary Association, many of whom we met during our cross-party delegation to Kyiv a few weeks ago. I hope they got a lot from their time in parliament.

𝐁𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐔𝐊 𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐥

By setting a new target for up to 50% of steel used in Britain to be made in Britain, Labour in government is backing homegrown industry and protecting our national security.

𝐆𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐭 𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫

Proud to chair the Co-op Party’s NEC this week as the government announced millions across our country are set to benefit from us widening access to affordable finance through reforms. It is excellent for our credit unions and for promoting financial inclusion, an important Co-operative Party priority.

𝐓𝐰𝐨-𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐜𝐚𝐩 𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐝

Here in Oldham, the two-child benefit cap affects 11,340 children, most of them in working families. The Universal Credit Act has now become law and the ending of the cap in April is set to lift almost half a million children out of poverty.

𝐆𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐟𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐓𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫 𝐌𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐁𝐢𝐥𝐥

Members voted this week with cross-party support to pass the Grenfell Tower Memorial Bill successfully in the Commons this week. Funding this memorial is part of our solemn duty to honour the victims of this horrendous event, keeping the promise to survivors and the bereaved.

Plenty done so far this week and plenty more to get on with back in Oldham with meetings with important local groups.

The Universal Credit Act now has been granted Royal Assent. The two child benefit cap is now gone and from next month, this new law will come into force.

This was a failed Tory experiment that punished innocent children and held too many families back. It was wrong then and it is right that a Labour government has scrapped it.

Here in Oldham, it affects 11,340 children, most of them in working families. That is around 1 in 5 children in our borough. Nationally, 1.6 million children were impacted, a million of them in working homes. Let that sink in.

This is what Labour governments do. We take action to lift children out of poverty:

Free breakfast clubs in every primary school, including 6 so far in Oldham West, Chadderton & Royton

Free school meals extended to nearly 10,000 more Oldham children

A plan to lift over half a million children out of poverty by 2030

This is not just morally right. It is economically smart. Supporting families means stronger local economies and better life chances for the next generation.

Let me be clear, ending the cap is not about luxury. Its about making sure children do not grow up in poverty. There is a false argument which sets the working poor against working poor, setting those with more than two children as undeserving. The real scandal is working families not earning enough to live a decent life.

Reform and the Tories would bring the cap back. We will not let that happen. This is our values in action and we are just getting started.

This week another life was taken as a result of a road traffic collision in Royton. Another family has been left devastated, and my thoughts are with them.

Our borough saw 8 people killed in 2024, that’s the highest number in a decade and of those 6 were pedestrians. There were more pedestrians killed in that single year than the previous three years combined, including children simply walking on the pavement.

None of us want to worry that our children going out to school or to meet friends might not come home, or a partner simply going to the supermarket not to return.

This is a public health emergency, and though I welcome hotspot police operations, the truth is we need more patrols on the streets every day.

There is a problem in Oldham we have to address, dangerous driving is contributing to the needless loss of life and serious injury. The data shows that the borough has 11 fatal incidents per billion miles travelled, that’s the highest in the North West of any other town or city, and it sits in 8th highest in the whole of England. The borough seen 45 lives lost on the roads and pavements over the past decade to 2024 and seen 737 serious injuries in the same period.

I will continue to press Greater Manchester Police for routine enforcement, and I’ve asked for a debate in government time on traffic policing and reducing deaths by dangerous driving.

As Ramadan draws to a close, I’d like to wish all Muslim constituents across Oldham West, Chadderton & Royton a prosperous & peaceful Eid-al-Fitr.

Local parks, lanes and country parks are being used as dumping grounds by rogue developers, landlords and dodgy waste firms. New proposals announced by this Labour government can’t come quick enough:

20 hours of community service for fly-tippers to pick up their own rubbish

Fines of up to £300

Courts given powers to punish illegal dumping by adding penalty points to criminals’ licences

Potential to be banned from driving

This new crackdown on waste criminals to tackle the scourge of fly-tipping is important. What they do is selfish and ruins the quality of life for local people, not to mention the cost to taxpayers for clearing it up.

That’s why our local Don’t Trash Oldham campaign was relaunched in November. It is more than just a tidy-up, it’s deep cleaning, rapid fly-tipping removal and a zero-tolerance approach, street by street across Oldham.

Werneth, Medlock Vale, Coldhurst, Hollinwood, and Chadderton have already seen major progress, with teams working alongside residents to tackle the root causes and create a culture change to rebuild pride in our neighbourhoods.

Since November, community support has grown and credit goes to the Labour Council for backing this work with real action, and this is just the start with it being rolled out to Royton & other areas across the borough in the weeks & months ahead.

We want to send the message locally & nationally that if you dump rubbish on our streets, you will be caught, join a clean-up squad and pick up the bill.

It was a pleasure to meet with Ukrainian MPs visiting the Parliament this week with the Inter-Parliamentary Association as part of their delegation to the UK, many of whom we met during our cross party delegation to Kyiv a few weeks ago.

President Zelenskyy was also in Parliament to address MPs and Lords at the invitation of the speakers, and in Downing Street to meet the Prime Minister.

Yesterday’s new UK–Ukraine defence agreement – a new world-leading partnership to boost global defensive capability and our national security sends a clear message that we stand with Ukraine, not just in words, but in action. Our friends in Ukraine have had to build new skills in realtime on the battlefield, and they’ve paid the price in the loss of life, injury and displacement of over 8 million citizens internally and beyond its own borders.

I saw that strength first-hand when I visited Ukraine last month with colleagues, marking four years since Putin’s illegal full scale invasion. The reality on the ground stays with you.

I hope they got a lot from their time in parliament. Slava Ukraini.