One in four of us will suffer a mental health problem at some stage during our lives.  We all know someone who has one of the common mental illnesses such as depression or anxiety or a more complex condition such as bi-polar disorder.

Thousands of ill and disabled people up and down the country have been waiting for months to find out whether they will get the Government’s new disability benefit – Personal Independence Payment (PIP) – which is for people who need help with the extra costs of living with a long term illness or disability.

DEPUTY LEADER Conference Speech Harriet Harman 2014

It was great to see so many members, officers and councillors from Camberwell & Peckham CLP attend Labour Party Conference this year at our annual get together for lunch at Pizza Express.

Art makes Children Powerful was the theme of a Panel event on Young People and the Arts in Manchester today. 

Yesterday, in Manchester, I launched the Labour Arts Alliance.  You can read the press release below.

You can read my report by clicking here.

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

I joined Southwark Labour Party members and councillors on Saturday 13th September at the Beormund Community Centre in Bermondsey for Southwark Labour's annual conference.

London Assembly Member, Val Shawcross, local councillors Richard Livingstone and Evelyn Akoto, and Southwark Council resident services officers Melvina Powell and Andrew Johnson on the Tustin Estate in Livesey.

This morning I joined my Labour colleagues to travel up to Scotland ahead of the referendum on the 18th September to help the No Campaign get the message across that we're better together. 

On Wednesday 10th September I visited the Maudsley Hospital in Camberwell to meet the new Chief Executive of the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM), Dr. Matthew Patrick. SLaM provides the widest range of mental health services in the UK and is at the forefront of tackling the stigma of mental health.

September is breast cancer awareness month and to show my support in the fight against breast cancer I dropped into the Breast Cancer Campaign's annual #wearitpink event in Parliament today.

Today I stood in for Ed Miliband at Prime Minster's Questions following the joint statement announcing that he, David Cameron and Nick Clegg would travel to Scotland to listen and talk to voters ahead of the referendum vote on the 18th September.

Liverpool can provide the “blueprint” for how the whole country ensures arts and culture are there for every child from every walk of life.

On 31st July I wrote to the Foreign Secretary, Philip Hammond MP, on the Ebola crsis in West Africa.  Camberwell and Peckham has the largest West African diaspora in the country and my constituents will be very concerned about the situation in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea and Nigeria.  Many will be worried about family members and close friends in their country of origin and will want to know that the UK Government is doing everything it can to help the affected countries.

You can read the Foreign Secretary's reply to my letter here.

It was good to see so many members and councillors out campaigning in The Lane ward in Peckham on Saturday morning when we visited the Pelican Estate.

The BAME Labour Executive and Labour Party hosted a reception for members, supporters, MPs, Councillors and Parliamentary Candidates this evening. The event was attended by over 150 people from across the country – from Bradford to Plymouth. I spoke about the important role our BAME members will play in the General Election campaign and how it is only the Labour party speaking up for BAME communities. And when it comes to representation Labour has more BAME MPs than the other parties put together but we still aspire to do better and be more representative of the general population.

The Rugby Football Union visited Parliament today to launch their Women & girls strategy. Their plan is to get 100k more women involved in the sport.

Rt Hon Simon Hughes MP

House of Commons London

SW1A 0AA