Tag: Rushanara Ali

  • Rushanara Ali – 2025 Resignation Letter to Keir Starmer

    Rushanara Ali – 2025 Resignation Letter to Keir Starmer

    The letter of resignation sent by Rushanara Ali to Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, on 7 August 2025.

    Rushanara Ali
    Member of Parliament for Bethnal Green and Stepney
    House of Commons
    London SW1A 0AA

    Labour Member of Parliament for Bethnal Green and Stepney

    7 August 2025

    Dear Prime Minister,

    It is with a heavy heart that I offer you my resignation as a Minister. It has been the honour of my life to have played my part in first securing and then serving as part of this Labour Government. You have my continued commitment, loyalty and support.

    Further to recent reporting, I wanted to make it clear that at all times I have followed all relevant legal requirements. I believe I took my responsibilities and duties seriously, and the facts demonstrate this.

    However, it is clear that continuing in my role will be a distraction from the ambitious work of the government. I have therefore decided to resign from my Ministerial position.

    I am proud to have contributed to the change this government has delivered in the past year. Working alongside the Deputy Prime Minister, we secured record investment in social and affordable housing, and nearly a billion pounds of funding to alleviate homelessness and rough sleeping. I am proud to have delivered this government’s election strategy, leading to legislation that will protect and enhance our democracy, with tough new laws on foreign donations, extending the vote to 16 and 17 year-olds, and tackling harassment and intimidation in public life.

    More widely, I have been proud to serve in a government that is investing in the NHS, rebuilding communities, securing trade deals, delivering jobs and growth, and rebuilding Britain’s place on the world stage. Under your leadership, Britain is showing international leadership on a range of issues, from standing up for Ukraine against Russian aggression, to working with our allies on developing a pathway to end the war in Gaza, including recognition of Palestinian statehood.

    I want to thank you and the Deputy Prime Minister for your support and for giving me the opportunity to serve the British public in this Labour Government.

    Please be assured of my continued support.

    Yours sincerely,

    Rushanara Ali
    Member of Parliament for Bethnal Green and Stepney

  • Rushanara Ali – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Rushanara Ali – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rushanara Ali on 2016-02-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, by what proportion the rent for premises leased by Network Rail has increased for businesses based in (a) Bethnal Green and Bow constituency, (b) London and (c) England in each of the last five years.

    Claire Perry

    I am unable to provide this information as it is held by Network Rail and is commercially sensitive.

  • Rushanara Ali – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Rushanara Ali – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rushanara Ali on 2016-06-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what funding the Government has allocated to tackle domestic violence in each year since 2010.

    Karen Bradley

    The previous Government provided £40 million of dedicated funding for domestic and sexual violence services between 2011 and 2015 equating to £10 million per year. This funding was extended until April 2016, supplemented by an additional £10 million for refuges and a £3.5 million fund to boost the provision of domestic violence services.

    As part of our new Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) strategy, we announced increased funding to £80 million from 2016 to 2020 to protect women and girls from violence, which includes support for refuges and other accommodation-based services, funding to national helplines, a further year of funding for Independent Domestic Violence Advisers and Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conference Coordinators and, from 2017, the launch of the VAWG Transformation Fund.

  • Rushanara Ali – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Rushanara Ali – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rushanara Ali on 2016-03-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, if she will make it her Department’s policy to replace the Green Deal with a scheme to improve energy efficiency in able-to-pay households, in addition to the post-2017 Energy Company Obligation and extension to the Warm Home Discount announced as part of the Spending Review.

    Andrea Leadsom

    We intend to focus our efforts through ECO and the Warm Home Discount more effectively on the fuel poor and continue to deliver on our commitment to insulate 1 million more homes this Parliament.

    We are also looking at a range of policy levers for driving take up of low carbon heat and energy efficiency in non-fuel poor households.

    We have commissioned The Bonfield Review to ensure that the current quality and standards framework properly supports and protects consumers; a report will be published in Spring 2016.

  • Rushanara Ali – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Rushanara Ali – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rushanara Ali on 2016-06-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to (a) monitor and (b) improve the performance of police forces in completing applications to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

    Karen Bradley

    The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) provides a formal monthly performance report to the Home Office and Home Office Ministers. This includes updates on the performance of police forces in meeting the Service Level Agreement (SLA) standards for the time taken to complete local disclosure checks.

    If police force performance falls below the standard agreed with the DBS, the DBS will work with the force concerned. Where appropriate, this may include implementing a recovery plan and providing additional resources to ensure that the plan is fully supported.

  • Rushanara Ali – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Rushanara Ali – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rushanara Ali on 2016-03-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the effect of visa arrangements for international students on the number of those students coming to study in the UK.

    James Brokenshire

    The student migration system we inherited was too weak, and open to wide-spread abuse, damaging the UK’s reputation as a provider of world-class education. The National Audit Office reported that in 2009/10 up to 50,000 students may have come to work, not study.

    We have clamped down on immigration abuse from poor quality institutions selling immigration rather than education, and since 2010 we have struck off more than 920 bogus colleges. Visa applications for the further education sector, where abuse has been most prevalent over recent years, are down 75 per cent compared with 2010.

    At the same time, we have maintained a highly competitive offer for international students who would like to study at our world-class institutions. This is borne out by the figures: visa applications from international students to study at British universities are up by 16 per cent since 2010, whilst visa applications to our world-leading Russell Group institutions are up by 39 per cent since 2010.

    We will continue to reform the student visa system to tackle abuse and deliver an effective immigration system that works in the national interest.

  • Rushanara Ali – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Rushanara Ali – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rushanara Ali on 2016-06-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies on benefits eligibility of the conclusion in the University of Hull report, entitled Mapping hunger, published in April 2016, that food bank use is highest in areas with people in skilled manual work or where more people are unable to work due to long-term sickness or disability.

    Justin Tomlinson

    This government is determined to move to a higher wage society, introducing the new National Living Wage that will benefit over 1 million workers directly this year, and spending £80 billion on working age benefits to ensure a strong safety net for those who need it most. We are also committed to supporting people with disabilities and currently spend a record £50 billion a year doing so.

    There are no plans to amend our reforms that are ensuring that work always pays and are restoring fairness for hardworking taxpayers. As the All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Hunger noted, the reasons why people use food banks can be complex and are frequently overlapping. Their use cannot be attributed to a single cause.

    Our welfare system provides a strong safety net to those who need extra support.

  • Rushanara Ali – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Rushanara Ali – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rushanara Ali on 2016-03-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make it her policy to make the entitlement to an early education place a legal requirement.

    Mr Sam Gyimah

    English local authorities have a statutory duty under section 7 of the Childcare Act 2006 to secure a free early education place of 15 hours a week for 38 weeks of the year for all three- and four-year-olds and two-year-olds who meet the eligibility criteria. The early education entitlement is not a legal requirement for parents, and we know that the current model is extremely successful, with 99% of four-year-olds and 94% of three-year-olds taking up a place. And, Based on survey data collected from local authorities in the autumn of 2015 it is estimated that 182,000 two-year-olds – around 72% of eligible children – have taken up a place on the two-year-old programme.

    The Secretary of State has a statutory duty under the Childcare Act 2016 to secure an additional 15 hours a week of free childcare for 38 weeks of the year for working parents of three- and four-year-olds.

    The Secretary of State will discharge the duty in clause 2 of the Childcare Act, the duty to secure 30 hours of free childcare for working parents, through all local authorities in England. Local authorities will, therefore, be required to secure childcare provision free of charge to qualifying children.

  • Rushanara Ali – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Rushanara Ali – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rushanara Ali on 2016-06-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make it his policy to monitor the provision and use of food banks.

    Priti Patel

    There are no plans for my Department to monitor the use of food banks. This is because as the All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Hunger noted that the reasons why people use food banks can be complex and are frequently overlapping. Their use cannot be attributed to a single cause.

  • Rushanara Ali – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Rushanara Ali – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rushanara Ali on 2016-04-22.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of reductions in HM Revenue and Customs funding on efforts to tackle tax evasion and avoidance.

    Mr David Gauke

    In the last Parliament, more than 40 changes were made to tax law, closing down loopholes and introducing major reforms to the UK tax-system. These measures are estimated to have raised over £12 billion by the end of 2015-16.

    At Summer Budget 2015, the government gave HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) an extra £800 million to fund additional work to tackle evasion and non-compliance by 2020-21. This will enable HMRC to recover a cumulative £7.2 billion in tax over the next five years by tackling evasion and non-compliance. It is committed to raising an additional £5 billion a year through tackling tax avoidance, aggressive tax planning, tax evasion, non-compliance and imbalances in the tax system by 2019-20.