Jon Ashworth MP has been trying, in vain, to find out when the Prime Minister David Cameron last met a young unemployed person. The PM and Chancellor, George Osborne, are avoiding answering this question but as journalist Kevin Maguire puts it “Because they can’t hide for ever from the young workless – they are the human cost of the Government’s failed policies.”

Read Kevin’s article here.

The three Leicester Labour MPs, Jonathan Ashworth, Liz Kendall and Keith Vaz have tabled an Early Day Motion in support of Children’s Heart Services at Glenfield Hospital.

EDM 1910 Reads

That this House commends the NHS staff at the Congenital Heart Centre at Glenfield Hospital in Leicester for their skill, compassion and dedication in caring for patients and supporting parents; recognises the Centre’s excellent track record of delivering high quality, safe and effective care; notes that Option A of the Government’s Safe and Sustainable review of children’s congenital heart surgery is the best option for ensuring the quality, accessibility and affordability of children’s heart surgery not only in the East Midlands but across the country; further notes that keeping children’s heart surgery in Leicester would also mean Glenfield retains it extra-corporeal membrane oxygenation service, for which it is the leading national centre; and therefore calls on the Government to support Option A and maintain the congenital heart centre at Glenfield Hospital.

There are public meetings on Thu 16th June at the Walkers Stadium at 3pm and 6pm. Please read the Leicester Mercury article for more information and how to submit a response to the public consultation by 1st July 2011.

We’d like to thank the people of Leicester for Labour’s landslide victory across the city yesterday and for putting their trust in us. Labour won 52 out of 54 Leicester City Council seats, with Peter Soulsby becoming Leicester’s first directly elected mayor with an emphatic majority across the city. Jon Ashworth won the Leicester South by-election with an increased majority which capped a stunning political endorsement of Labour in Leicester.

We know that this trust by the people of Leicester puts a heavy burden on us to be accountable, open and honest and we plan to rise to this challenge to build a more confident and prosperous city for all the communities and people of Leicester.

With only one Conservative and one Liberal Democrat Councillor left in the city it has sent out a clear message to the Tory-led Government that their policies are hurting people in their day to day lives.

Read the Leicester Mercury’s opinion piece in today’s paper “A new era for Leicester and city’s first directly-elected mayor”

You can see the full results on the Leicester City Council Website.

By David Maclean Political Correspondent

A generation of people will end up worse off than their parents as a result of coalition policies, Labour’s by-election candidate says.

Jon Ashworth is hoping to become the MP for Leicester South after Sir Peter Soulsby, who held the seat for Labour, stood down to run for city mayor.

He said that the trend of each generation becoming more affluent and successful than the one before could be ended.

"People in Leicester, who’ve seen rising living standards for decades, now face an uncertain future," Mr Ashworth said.

"Under the coalition it is more expensive to go to university than ever before and we have one of the toughest employment markets for a long time due to a stagnant economy.

"This by-election is a referendum on the coalition and what it has done so far."

Read the full article in the Leicester Mercury.

With the working-class council estates of Eyres Monsell and Saffron Lane, diverse communities closer to the city centre, traditionally Tory wards on the outskirts and liberal-leaning voters in the areas around the university, Leicester South really is a microcosm of Britain.

Its politics have mirrored the country’s, too. The seat has changed hands no fewer than five times since the seventies. It’s been represented by MPs from all three major parties over the last twenty years with the Lib Dems winning the 2004 by-election.

And when it goes to the polls in the by-election on 5 May it will have the opportunity to speak for Britain again.

Read more of Jon Ashworth’s article on Labour Uncut.