Parliament 

Since I last updated you, I have been busy in Parliament, particularly with my work across the mission boards. 

On 23rd January I was responding to Cabinet Office Questions, including on ministerial travel and the work the Government is doing to get Britain building.  

I have also met with Carole Abrahams, the Deputy for the Catford Synagogue to discuss the worrying rise of antisemitism in Britain. 

As the Minister with responsibility for the GREAT campaign I was honoured to give the keynote speech at its annual celebration. The campaign enhances the UK’s global reputation, and attracts international partners to invest in Britain. 

I attended the London Sport Reception, I met with London Sport in the Autumn of last year and learnt about their work opening up school sports facilities to the local communities, so it was great to catch up with them and hear about what they are doing to help break down barriers to physical activity.  

I was also able to stop by the Homeless Link Parliamentary reception, hosted in part by our fantastic CLP chair Fiona, where I was able to hear about how the Government can work together with other organisations and break the cycle to end homelessness.   

Last week was Heart Unions week, Trade Unions are the bedrock of the Labour Party and I work closely with many of them, therefore I was delighted to post this video discussing their importance. 

Party Chair 

In my role as Party Chair I have been busy working with the HQ team building our plans for the May local elections, including the relaunch of our highly successful twinning strategy. Along with our General Secretary, these last few weeks I have been presenting our election strategy presentation to the Cabinet, MPs, Mayors, Labour staff and at the Labour Local Government Association Conference in Coventry.  

I was also delighted to speak to the National Women’s Committee about all the work Labour has done so far for women since we were elected in July. 

One of my favourite parts of the Party Chair role is getting out across the country and campaigning with our fantastic candidates. Since our last meeting I have campaigned with Margaret Pinder our Hull and East Yorkshire Mayoral candidate. I have also campaigned in Derbyshire and in Rugby. I was also able to kick off the first National Campaign Weekend of the year with Daniel Francis MP in Bexleyheath and Crayford. 

I have also been visiting many of our fantastic regional teams across the country including the East Midlands, West Midlands, Yorkshire and Humber, North and Labour Central teams as well as this amazing team of super volunteers from Labour Northeast. This month I also met with our affiliated Trade Union General Secretaries to give them an update on my work as Party Chair. 

In other recent work I was really pleased to open Labour Eastern Regional Conference as their guest speaker. I was also really pleased to once again be a keynote speaker at East and South East Asian’s fundraiser dinner to celebrate the lunar new year.  

Community

I am aware that a significant proportion of my constituency has been affected by a large-scale water outage. I have been extremely disappointed by Thames Water’s response to this and you can see my letter to the Chief Executive, Mr Chris Weston here and speaking to BBC London here. If you have been affected and there is anything I can do to help please do email me on Ellie.Reeves.MP@Parliament.uk or call 020 7219 2668 and my team will be happy to discuss how I can best advise or assist. 

I have also been spending as much time as I can in the constituency meeting with many local organisations including the Crofton Park Transport Users group to discuss their campaign to improve services from Crofton Park Station. I also enjoyed my meeting with Jamie Stevens the principal of Lewisham College to speak with him about the importance of skills education.  

It was a pleasure to visit Kings College Hospital to meet with their hard working staff and discuss the Government’s investment plans for the NHS. 

I always enjoy visiting schools and speaking to pupils, this month I have been to Stillness Junior School and, Harris Boys East Dulwich where I was grilled on our economic policy. It was also great to meet with sixth formers from Alleyn’s school on their recent parliament trip 

Finally, I was able to join with my neighbouring MPs Janet Daby and Vicky Foxcroft to take part in a question time event organised by Lewisham Speaking Up to encourage people with disabilities to participate in politics. 

I love the vibrant community here in Lewisham West and East Dulwich and I am always inspired by the work done by volunteers to improve their local area. I recently joined the Friends of Blythe Hill Fields to help plant their community orchard.  I also attended the ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate the recent refurbishment of the Goose Green Centre, who do so much brilliant work for our local community.

Thank you once again for all your support, 

Best wishes,  

Ellie 

Ellie Reeves MP