Team Labour in the East Midlands held their annual conference in Leicester this weekend. The conference  is attended by over 250 people from across the region including MPs, Parliamentary Candidates, Councillors, Trade Unionists and members of the Labour Party.

Queen Edith’s ward in Cambridge will have a by-election on 13th of November. I joined Labour’s candidate Rahima Ahammed and Daniel Zeichner, Labour’s Parliamentary Candidate to speak with student activists from Homerton College, Cambridge.

The NHS is incredibly important to people and is rightfully one of Britain’s, and Labour’s, proudest achievements. But the NHS today is now one of people’s biggest concerns. People have to struggle to get to see their GP; many are having to wait longer in A&E; operations are being cancelled; and NHS staff are demoralised while billions of pounds are squandered on an NHS reorganisation that no one wants.

Staff are working hard every day despite the chaos inflicted by the Government’s reorganisation which has dragged the NHS down. Patients, doctors and nurses told the Government to stop it - knowing it would cause chaos - but they refused to listen.

Kings has one of the busiest and best A&E departments in London. And they do an excellent job with the resources they have. But they have recently taken on the running of the Princess Royal University Hospital in Bromley and its A&E department, and the challenges it faces are significant.

I’m extremely concerned by the latest figures on waiting times and patients having their operations cancelled. The number of patients waiting over 4 hours in A&E at Kings is currently 7% of those admitted. And since April this year, 331 patients have had their operations cancelled.

People are also finding it harder to see their GP. Many constituents have contacted me directly and a survey at my advice surgery showed over half were not able to get an appointment on the same day and three quarters said they had to wait over 48 hours to get a GP appointment. Most worryingly, over half of the constituents surveyed said they had had to go to A&E because they couldn’t see their GP when they needed to.

NHS midwives, nurses and ambulance crews recently went on strike over their pay and conditions. Local staff at Kings tell me they don’t want to strike, that patient safety always comes first. And they don’t want to hurt Kings because the people who work there love it. Even on the strike day the midwives kept their uniforms on so they'd be ready to rush to a delivery. But they say the Government is not listening to them and that this is the only action they can take.

It is dedicated hospital workers, doctors, and nurses who deliver the NHS. We need to make sure our NHS is strengthened and protected. That is why the next Labour Government will repeal the Health Act which has put the NHS on a fast-track to privatisation. We will restore the core principles of the NHS and make frontline care a priority because we know these are the values the overwhelming majority of the public, NHS staff and patients support.

Visiting Princess Royal University Hospital (PRUH) in Farnborough and Orpington Hospital with Tessa Jowell MP to see the new services which people in Southwark can benefit from following the merger with Kings College Hospital Trust in 2013.

Council departments, national agencies & the voluntary sector all working together to help people in Southwark. This morning I gave a keynote speech at Southwark Council's annual Stakeholder Conference for staff working in the revenues and benefits sector.

Pupils, staff, parents, supporters and local people at a packed opening of the new Highshore School in Camberwell.

Residents at Kelly House invited Naushabah Khan PPC for Rochester & Strood and myself to join them for their daily coffee morning. We discussed a range of issues affecting their lives and the biggest concern they had was the difficulty in accessing a GP appointment.

Bright sunny Sunday morning for joining Labour members and councillors campaigning in Peckham Rye.

Heritage sites, beautiful seaside and countryside and visitor attractions are spread throughout the country, and so many localities need the regeneration that tourism can bring. 

Tourism is an economic powerhouse for Britain.  But for too long tourism has not been given the recognition it deserves. This Government’s approach has been patchy. Ministers have failed to take a properly joined-up approach.

Highshore School is a special needs secondary school for local children in Camberwell. They have recently settled into a new state of the art building. 

Tourism is a major contributor to the UK economy, providing jobs for 3.1 million people and representing 9 per cent of UK GDP. It will play a key role in Labour’s plans for growth and jobs across the country.

On the World at One I joined BBC presenter Martha Kearney and panellists Anna Soubry, from the Conservative Party and Douglas Carswell, from UKIP to discuss the national and international news stories of the day.

The dinner was held at the Imperial War Museum in London and was to commemorate the role that women played in the First World War and the impact the war had on changing gender roles in the workplace.

Today at Deputy Prime Minister’s Questions I challenged Nick Clegg on whether he now regrets the Government’s £3 billion pound top down reorganisation following reports in the Times newspaper that some of his Cabinet colleagues have said they do regret this policy.

The phone lines were busy this evening at LBC for the next instalment of my regular phone in with Iain Dale.

Question Time was televised live from Clacton this evening just after the polls had closed in both Clacton and the Heywood and Middleton by elections.

The by-election in Clacton on sea takes place this Thursday, following the resignation of Douglas Carswell in August. I met with Labour's candidate, Tim Young, to visit West Cliff Theatre to hear about the work they do.

Following Nick Clegg's speech to Lib Dem Party Conference, Harriet Harman MP, Labour’s Deputy Leader, said:

This evening the Labour Party held an Eid reception to celebrate this occasion with people from across the country.