Alex Ballinger

On September 9, the UK will come together to mark Emergency Services Day, also known as 999 Day, a national day dedicated to recognising and celebrating the extraordinary work of the NHS and emergency services personnel across the country.

Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust delivers over 37,000 extra appointments in one year as patients in the Black Country benefit from quicker care with Labour.

Rachel Reeves, United Kingdom’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, is facing mounting pressure from her own backbenches as more than 100 Labour MPs demand that gambling companies pay higher taxes to help finance the abolition of the two-child benefit cap. The push, which aligns with proposals advanced by Gordon Brown and the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), has gained considerable traction ahead of the Chancellor’s Budget scheduled for 26 November.

Alex Ballinger, MP for Halesowen, has called on schools in Halesowen to apply to become part of the next wave of new or expanded nurseries directly on primary school grounds, to make life easier for working parents, cutting down the school run and giving children a seamless start to their education.

Alex Ballinger, Member of Parliament for Halesowen, visited Asda Halesowen to meet colleagues and learn more about their fundraising efforts in support of Asda Tickled Pink, helping to raise awareness during Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Talented people in Halesowen with the potential to become brilliant teachers are being offered bursaries and scholarships worth up to £31,000 to train to teach in subjects including chemistry, maths, physics, and computing that will help boost outcomes for Halesowen’s young people.

Speak to frontline gender-based violence service providers in Rotherham or Halesowen, and then to women’s rights advocates in Lilongwe or Lahore, and the similarities are unsettlingly consistent. The risks and realities are not identical, and the scale can differ dramatically, but the underlying dynamics barely shift: unequal power, social norms that excuse harm, institutions that act only after the damage has been done, and the relentless resilience demanded of women and girls simply to live and lead without fear.

Since taking office, this Labour Government has begun the serious work of national renewal after more than a decade of austerity and decline. By cutting NHS waiting times, bringing railways back into public ownership, boosting defence manufacturing, and investing in clean energy, we are restoring confidence in our economy and pride in our country. The UK now has the fastest-growing economy in the G7 — but renewal is about more than numbers. It is about identity, belonging, and shared purpose.

As global attention is drawn to conflicts elsewhere, from Eastern Europe to the Middle East, another strategic theatre is rapidly rising in importance: the High North.

Since my election, one of the most common frustrations I hear on the doorstep is about recycling.