Although it is two months since the general election Parliament has only just established the Select Committees which play such a vital role in scrutinising the Executive and holding it to account. In the absence of  Committee meetings  I have been able to spend a lot of time in the Chamber itself. It is noticeable that the opposition led by  the impressive interim Labour leader Harriet Harman  have  started to be quite effective and scored some hits against the right wing Conservative/Lib Dem government.  I pressed Education Secretary Michael Gove about the threat of his so called “Free schools “ policy . I  called on Health Secretary Andrew Lansley to guarantee the future of King George Hospital.  I  challenged Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg on his ill thought out and dubious constitutional proposals,  and I criticised  Prime Minister David Cameron for proposing to give huge sums of public money to buy off individuals who have made allegations against our security services.

 In the last Parliament I had been from 2005 to 2010 Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee.  Due to the change of government the position was allocated to the Conservatives and I was therefore ineligible to stand for re-election when the post was voted on by all MPs.  After careful thought I decided to try to remain on the Committee and I am pleased that I  have been elected by Labour MPs to be one of our five members on the new eleven member Committee.   We held our first meeting this week to plan our work programme and evidence sessions .   I have also been elected as Chairman of the back bench  Labour Foreign Affairs Committee .   I have also been re-elected as Chairman of the All Party Crossrail Parliamentary Group.   I intend to press ministers to keep to the timetable and scope of Crossrail which is a vital project for Ilford, Redbridge and London as a whole.