Frank's Westminster Blog

When I met some of the Birkenhead families who lost loved ones at Hillsborough they all requested that the government should move swiftly to set aside the grotesque inquest verdicts following the Hillsborough disaster. The government’s senior legal officer, the Attorney General, promised to go back to the High Court as soon as he could to ask for the verdicts to be set aside. He has acted as good as his word. He has made an application to go before the...

Just over a year ago the six local authorities that make up the Merseyside city region formed a poverty and life chances commission. The commission has been set up to look at best practice across the six authorities.  On Friday I chaired a meeting where the key staff involved in the foundation years came together to talk about how they are preparing to ensure that children are ready for school. The mfigures for the region show that something like 40 per cent...

I began Friday with an early morning visit to Cammell Laird’s shipyard to meet with chief executive John Syvret. The news he reported to me was another positive reflection of both his leadership and the high performance and ability of all those who work there. Turnover has increased tenfold since John began running the shipyard. Better still, the yard is now building ships. Most people thought that age had long since passed. Two new ferries are...

Jane Kennedy is our first Police and Crime Commissioner. She beat five other candidates to win 56.2% of first preference votes. As she is now busily drawing up her budget we need to lobby on where we would like to see the most effective police action. There are two issues which you as voters have continually raised with me. There is the long running saga on antisocial behaviour and there is increasing concern at the level of violence committed...

In recent weeks Tranmere Rovers’ bid to build up to 90 houses on the historic Ingleborough Road memorial field has not been out of the headlines. The plans were given the go ahead at the end of October, but opponents of the bid promised to fight on. It’s clearly a very emotive proposal. I can relate to both sides. Supporters of the bid claim it deliver significant benefits to the local community, including housing provision, modern sports...