Withington Ward Lab 🇺🇦

Statement from the Withington Labour councillors following recent national events. ⤵️ Details on reporting hate crime here: gmp.police.uk/hatecrime If you are scared or need help for you or your community, please email community@manchester.gov.uk.

Families in Manchester can now find trusted advice on health, wellbeing, cost of living support and getting children ready for school through the new Family Friend service. Find out more here: manchester.gov.uk/family-friend

The government’s Animal Welfare Strategy is the strongest set of reforms in a generation. We’re improving the lives of animals in homes, on farms, and in the wild. jeffsmithmp.com/2026/01/07/jef…

Good news for passengers in Greater Manchester. From March 2026, older and disabled people will be able to use concessionary bus passes all day. The £2 single fare is also being retained, with bus and tram fares frozen until the end of 2026.

🚨An Amber Cold Health Alert has been issued for the #NorthWest until 5 Jan 2026. 🥶 Cold weather can have a serious impact on health for older people, young children and those with certain long-term health conditions. Check in on the well-being of those most vulnerable.

Congratulations to our Leader @bevcraig 👏🏼

If you need support this festive season, my website has emergency contacts & useful info for a wide range of local services: jeffsmithmp.com/2025/12/24/use…

2025 has been quite a year. Manchester… take a bow 👏🏼 Here’s to an even better 2026.

Here’s some good news to give you a lift as we go into Christmas. 🐝 We will be keeping the £2 cap on bus fares for the whole of 2026. 👍🏻

Transport For Greater Manchester have launched a public consultation on the Draft Greater Manchester Transport Strategy 2050 and the Delivery Plan. Have your say here: gmconsult.org/transport/tran…

I attended a Parliamentary briefing with campaign group, The New Hunting Ban, to hear about legislative recommendations to strengthen the Hunting Act. Great news that the Labour government is committed to action to ban trail hunting.

Life doesn’t start at 9.30- so why should older people and disabled people have to wait? @McrLabour Councillors have written to @AndyBurnhamGM to make permanent the hugely successful trial allowing free bus travel before 9.30am. Back our campaign 👇🏼

Earlier this month, I joined other Manchester MPs in writing to the government asking to confirm a substantial uplift in funding for our Council. I’m pleased a very positive financial settlement has been announced for Manchester City Council.

Day 18 🐝🌹🎄: We’ve given tens of millions of investment into tackling both the root cause of homeless and supporting people when they face crisis. We’ve ended the use of bed and breakfast for families, opened even more high quality accommodation, built record numbers of council and social housing and helped families get off the streets. #mcrlabour24daysofxmas

Great to see this. Something More Productive is one of our fantastic independent traders and local businesses in Withington Village.

Day 17 🌹🐝🎄: The Tories & Lib Dems in Government disproportionately cut funding to Manchester, and other poor Northern cities and towns. We saw almost £500m cut from our budgets. Today the Labour Government has announced that they will fund communities on the basis of need. This means Manchester will get their biggest cash boost since 2010. Labour in national government is already delivering for our city. #mcrlabour24daysofxmas

I joined our Withington Councillors to celebrate the opening of Southway Housing’s new homes at Makers Court. The development has transformed a brownfield site into 24 new apartments for social rent.

Sunny day campaigning in Withington with @JeffSmithetc and the @McrLabour team. Lots of casework picked up and support from residents for Labour too.🌹 Great to see the new 24 homes for social rent on Francis Road built by @SouthwayHousing that residents are very pleased with.🏡

What difference does a Labour Government make? Restoring the link to need and deprivation local council funding will see the biggest boost since 2010 to Manchesters budget. 👇🏼 manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-m…

Labour is delivering on our mission of tackling child poverty: jeffsmithmp.com/2025/12/10/jef…

I have joined other Manchester MPs in writing to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, to ask that the Government delivers a fair and substantial uplift in funding for MCC as part of the upcoming Local Government Finance Settlement.