Today I attended the inaugural session of the APPG on knife crime established by Sarah Jones MP for Croydon Central.

Knife crime is a problem in Southwark, and is getting worse. There were 840 reported incidents in the Borough of Southwark last year, up from 577 for the same March-to-February period in 2015-16.

The APPG aims to give a national platform to those working at a grassroots level and those experiencing the tragic consequences of knife crime. As well as working to find a cross-party consensus on new measures to combat the resurgence in knife crime. A particular focus will be on identifying the underlying causes of blade offences and the reasons why some young people decide to carry a knife.

This morning, I met with Borough Commander Simon Messinger to discuss the Southwark and Lambeth policing merger and the threatened closure of police front counters. Knife crime, gangs, sexual and domestic violence were also discussed at length.

Today I along with a cross-party group of 157 MPs have written to the Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson to urge the UK Government to lead the international response to help end the violence against Rohingya Muslims. Full letter:

Speaking to Labour women from across the North of England today at Newcastle Labour Women’s event on “The importance of women in politics”, Harriet Harman MP will say that the House of Commons must introduce a system of baby leave for MPs.

There are now more women MPs - 208 - and MPs are younger.  So this issue is now pressing. Since 2010, 17 babies have been born to women MPs yet there is no system of leave.

In a paper which she has submitted to The Speaker’s Commons Reference Group on Representation and Inclusion which meets next week, Harman proposes a comprehensive system of leave and cover for women and men MPs who have a baby:

*6 months paid leave.  (Same as the Civil Service)

*That the MP should be able to nominate another MP to cast her vote when she is on leave.

*That the MP should be able to nominate a full time paid “maternity cover” representative for her work outside the Commons.

*And that baby leave should apply to babies born to MP fathers as well as mothers.  

Harriet Harman said: 

“Women have babies - that is a fact of life. Women are in Parliament - that’s a democratic imperative. The baby needs time with the mother, the mother needs time with the baby and the constituency needs to be properly represented at all times. We need a proper system of baby leave to square that circle. It’s long overdue.

“It is not right when we as MPs set the rules for employers that we ourselves remain in a “pre-maternity leave” era. When I was first an MP in 1982 there were only 3% woman MPs and most people thought maternity leave for MPs was irrelevant.   Now there are 208 women MPs - 32%.   And MPs are getting younger.  The reality is you cannot be on call for your constituency or voting when you are in labour.  And you should not have to be on duty when your baby is only a few weeks/months old.  But the constituency must have a representative at all times.  There needs to be a proper system of leave and cover. At the same time as the number of women in parliament has increased, the expectations of fatherhood have changed.  We have long argued that fathers need the opportunity to spend time with their new born baby.  Yet the parliamentary system itself makes no acknowledgement that men MPs are also fathering babies and indeed some male MPs carry on “business as usual” when they have a baby. That is not acceptable and Parliament needs to set a proper example on leave. During my 35 years as MP I’ve had 3 children. 18 months leave for 3 babies during 35 years work doesn’t seem too much to ask.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

1. Harriet Harman is “Mother of the House” i.e. the longest continuously serving woman MP having been elected in 1982.
2. Harriet Harman has submitted the attached paper to the Commons Reference Group on Representation and Inclusion which is chaired by the Speaker and which will be meeting next on Tuesday 12^th September.
3. A system of ‘baby leave’ for MPs could be implemented by decision of the House of Commons.  It would not be an Act of Parliament.  It would be “House Business” and decided on a free vote of all MPs.   (Like, for example when the House of Commons changed the rules to allow “Deferred Divisions” and when the Commons decided to change the sitting hours.) It would not be government business and would not be whipped.  The lead minister would be Leader of the House of Commons - Andrea Leadsom.
4. In the Northern Region there were very few women MPs but now 14 out of Labour’s 26 MPs are women, including Bridget Phillipson MP and Catherine McKinnell MP, who between them have had 3 babies as sitting MPs.

For more information contact [email protected] / 020 7219 2057

Tragically at the moment too often teenage boys and young men in their 20s are being killed by knives.  In just the last 12 months in my constituency of Camberwell and Peckham 2 young men have been fatally stabbed - Ernest Kalawa aged only 24, a young man born and brought up in the community in Peckham who attended a local school and has left behind a devastated younger brother, two younger sisters and parents. And teenager Abdirahman Mohamed aged just 17 at the time of his tragic murder, a young boy from Camberwell whose family are utterly distraught.

This is a problem which is getting worse. Last year there was a 24% rise in knife across London but the increase is even worse in locally in Southwark where knife offences rose by almost 50% in the last year.  

Many complex issues lie behind this rise in knife crime but what is of undeniable importance is the role of the police in prevention and in assuring that when such a crime is committed the perpetrators do not get away with it but face justice.  

So it is particularly worrying that against a background of persistent and distressing knife crime that the work of the police is being cut back.

Police numbers are vital to community policing. Police who walk the streets get to know families and communities. Yet the numbers of police on the beat are being cut back – there are 24% less police officers and community support officers in Southwark than there were in 2010. On top of that the accessibility of the police to the public is under threat as front desks at police stations are facing closure across London and the understanding and leading role of a borough commander on behalf of the local community is being weakened – cutbacks mean Southwark may no longer have our own police commander but will share one with Lambeth.  

This is not what local people want. The working relationship that’s built up between Southwark Police and their team with communities in Southwark is of huge importance and needs yet further work, not diluting across boroughs. While coordination between boroughs on issues like knife crime is important, these measures are driven not by the needs of people living in Southwark, or the police, but by cuts.

This is a worry for many MPs across London, particularly in south London and that’s why it’s so important that Sarah Jones, the new MP for Croydon, has set up a new all-party parliamentary group on knife crime, which I have joined. We will be working together to back the action of police, schools, parents and youth services to try to tackle this growing problem and end the tragedy of these young deaths.

It is so distressing that more families are having to suffer the loss of a son, brother or partner. More needs to be done to protect our young people and keep them safe. I will continue to work with local councillors, the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and my Labour colleagues in Parliament to oppose these Tory cuts to police, the cuts to education budgets which mean schools are no longer able to afford after-school clubs and pastoral support and the cuts to local councils which mean youth services are being cut back.   

A number of people have contacted me about the growing issue of children going hungry during the school holidays.

It is unacceptable that 3 million children are at risk of going hungry during the school holidays as a result of stagnant pay and the Tories’ withdrawal of free-school meals outside term time. The scale of the problem was demonstrated the Trussell Trust reporting a significant rise in demand from food banks over the summer holidays last year - with 67,506 three-day emergency food supplies distributed in July and August 2016, compared with 63,094 in the previous months.

Holiday hunger is devastating to a child’s life chances and worsens income inequality. Poorer children are at risk of starting the school term malnourished, sluggish and several weeks, if not months behind other children.

I fully support Frank Field MP’s bill to require local authorities to facilitate the delivery of programmes that provide free meals and activities for children during school holidays and to call on the government to give local councils the money they need to support children in poverty and meet the growing demand.

Without action, it is expected that over 5 million children will live in poverty by 2020. A Labour Government would work to end the scandal of child poverty through the introduction of a new Child Poverty Strategy, raising the minimum wage to a real living wage of £10 an hour, pausing and reforming the disastrous Universal Credit rollout and introducing universal free school meals. 

In 2012 Desreen Brooks was walking in Hampstead with her husband Ben Brooks-Dutton and her 2 year old son Jackson when a driver mounted the pavement and killed her. The driver, aged 82, had mistaken the accelerator for the break and was driving at 54mph in a 20mph zone.

He was convicted of causing Desreen’s death by dangerous driving and in sentencing him the judge said “an elderly driver who knows, or should acknowledge, that he or she is losing his or her faculties is no less a danger than a drunken driver who knows the same.”

Desreen’s widower Ben and son Jackson now live in my constituency and Ben has asked me to take up the issue of making our roads safe from drivers who are unfit to drive through ageing. 

Currently there is no upper age limit for a driving licence. But once you reach the age of 70 you have to fill in a self-assessment form every 3 years in order to renew your licence. This means the responsibility is on the older person themselves to notify the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) of any medical impairment which may affect their driving. If there’s only a gradual change you might not notice it yourself. And some people, even where they are aware of changes, don’t want to face up to them if it means giving up driving.  

With increasing numbers of drivers and a growing number of elderly and very elderly people, this is a road safety issue which must be addressed. According to the DVLA more than 1.2million people over 80 hold a UK driving licence and the number of people aged over 90 holding a driving licence is, for the first time, over 100,000.

I think there’s a simple way to deal with this. Already, when you are over 75 you have a named GP and are entitled to an annual health check. It would be simple and straightforward for anyone over the age of 75 to have to get their GP, at their annual health check, to certify whether they are still fit to drive. And without the annual recertification by the GP – who will have checked their eyesight as well – they would not be able to renew their driving licence.  

For many older people driving is an important way of maintaining independence so we mustn’t prevent people from driving on the basis of their age alone. It’s about their capabilities. 

I have asked the new Chair of Parliament’s Transport Select Committee Lilian Greenwood MP to conduct an inquiry into older drivers and have proposed a requirement for fitness certification of older drivers and I am urging the Transport Secretary Chris Grayling MP to do the same. 

No one wants to make life harder for older people. And in less than 10 years’ time I will be over 75 myself. But we have to recognise that ageing can impair faculties and we must keep our roads safe. And at the same time we should improve public transport in all areas and cut fares for older people.

I wrote to the Minster of State for Housing and Planning Alok Sharma MP calling on the government to take action to improve regulation and protect existing and future leaseholders from extortionate rises in ground rents by developments or management companies. I also wrote to Sir Peter Bottomley MP, Chair of the APPG for Leasehold and Commonhold Reform, to ask him to keep me informed of the Group’s vital work.

Both letters can be found below:

Sierra Leone has been hit by a dreadful mudslide which has left many dead, many injured, homes unsafe, transport and commerce disrupted. There is a vibrant Sierra Leonean community in Camberwell and Peckham and the UK has a longstanding relationship with Sierra Leone. Today I've written to the Secretary of State for International Development, Rt Hon Priti Patel MP to urge the government to do all it can to support Sierra Leone as they rebuild after this tragedy.

Full letter:

This morning I visited the Ledbury Estate to talk to residents after the council was advised to turn off the gas supply in the four blocks. Along with Cllr Michael Situ, Ledbury Housing Officer Peter Bailey, Ledbury TRA Chair Jeanette Mason and caring council staff, I spoke to residents who are worried sick about what is going to happen. They are facing complete disruption to their lives and everyone is uncertain about whether they'll have to move, where to, for how long and how they'll cope.

It's an awful situation but the council are working hard to ensure that every individual resident is helped. They are sorting temporary accommodation, permanent accommodation and even hotels and compensation for the costs people are facing.

The council are doing their best but it's time the government stepped up and gave Southwark Council the money it needs to ensure the Ledbury costs do not take money away from other important major works projects for tenants in the borough.

I'd like to pay tribute to the work of Jeanette Mason and the Ledbury Tenants Association as well as council staff and local councillors who are all working hard for the local community.

You can read my full statement here.

For immediate release
Friday 11^th August 2017

After talking to worried residents on the Ledbury Estate in her constituency of Camberwell and Peckham this morning local MP Harriet Harman said:

“The residents of the tower blocks on the Ledbury are facing complete disruption to their lives and many of the residents I spoke to this morning are worried sick about what's going to happen.  Ledbury is a settled community where generations live together and help each other.  Elderly residents are looked after by their children and grandchildren, grandparents look after the grandchildren while the parents are out at work.  People work locally and their children are in local schools and everyone is now uncertain about whether they'll have to move, where to, for how long and how they'll cope.  People are taking time off work to deal with their rehousing and losing money.  One woman had planned to go on holiday tomorrow - a treat for her retirement - and now doesn't know whether she should go.

“It is an awful situation but the council are working hard to ensure that every individual resident is helped.  They are sorting temporary accommodation, permanent accommodation and even hotels and compensation for the costs people are facing.

“The council have assured me that they will refurbish the Ledbury Tower blocks and they will continue to be council flats.  They are not going to sell them off. 

“The council are doing their best and it’s time for the government to step up to the plate.  The government has cut Southwark Council’s grant by half in the last 7 years.  They must give them the cash they need to deal with this.  I and the other Southwark MPs Helen Hayes and Neil Coyle have been pressing the government to give the council the money they need.  So far it’s just been evasion and obfuscation and no commitment on cash.  The council will pay the cost for the Ledbury refurbishment and rehousing.  But they must not be forced to take the money away from other important major works projects.  Tenants and residents in other estates have been waiting for important improvements and Ledbury mustn’t mean that they have to wait still longer.  And nor should the burden fall on leaseholders who've already been faced with big charges.  I welcome that the council has told the Ledbury leaseholders that they won't have to pay for the major works that are now underway.

“I'd like to pay a big tribute to Jeanette Mason and the Ledbury Tenants Association.  Like so many tenants reps, Jeanette works tirelessly, unpaid, for her local community.

"I'd like to thank the local councillors, Richard Livingstone, Evelyn Akoto and Michael Situ and the council staff who are there on site and will be working over the weekend.  They are dedicated and caring and determined to do their best for the council's residents in such a dire situation.

“We will need to find out why, when the block has been subject to so many investigations and reports over the past decades, that it was not until the last few hours that the council was told that the blocks are not safe for their gas system.  Why has this not been the advice that the council received over the last decades”.

ENDS

For more information contact Rachel Smethers [email protected] / 020 72192057

Harriet Harman: government should cover cost of fire safety improvements in council housing

News Desk (20 July, 2017) Columnists

I will continue to work with my Southwark Labour colleagues... to press the government to commit to providing Southwark Council with the money it needs to carry out all necessary inspections and do the work to ensure residents are safe.

Harriet Harman seeks political unity in fight to stop abuse of female MPs

By Anushka Asthana Political editor, Guardian Friday 14 July 2017 06.00 BST

Harriet Harman has called on Labour women to speak out against any abuse and intimidation aimed at female Conservative MPs, warning that “a misogynistic attack on one woman is a misogynistic attack on all women”.

Parliament’s most prominent feminist, who has been a Labour MP since 1982, warned against allowing party political divides to emerge in the response to a growing spate of abuse, which she said was “undermining democracy”.

“I think that undeniably there is a problem and particularly focused on women, and particularly younger women or, in the case of Diane Abbott, a black woman, of abuse and harassment and threats. And that is an absolute fact,” she said in an interview on the Guardian’s Politics Weekly podcast.

Harman, who as the longest-serving female MP has the title Mother of the House, said voters must be given the right to choose a representative and for that person to be free from intimidation and harassment. “This sort of thing is an attack on democracy and we must treat it with absolute seriousness,” she said, a day after Theresa May ordered an investigation into intimidation experienced by candidates during the general election after a barrage of complaints about death threats and harassment.

Harman argued that the first response was for every party - including Labour – to commit to expelling anyone engaging in misogynistic abuse. “In the spirit of solidarity and a commitment to democracy, let alone the sisterliness of feminism, we must all stand together against this. And, as Labour women, we’ve got to be as vocal in protesting and demanding action to protect Conservative women and candidates as we are in our demands to protect our own Labour women.”

Harman’s intervention comes after a debate in parliament by MPs on the abuse they suffered in everyday life and on social media, with many revealing that they had taken action to improve their security after Labour’s Jo Cox was murdered by a rightwing extremist in 2016.

In her interview, Harman spoke of other challenges facing female MPs, as new figures from the House of Commons library reveal that women’s average length of service as MPs was about 33% shorter than for men – four to five years less, on average.

“Some might assume, because it is very difficult to combine being an MP – especially for an out-of-London constituency – with having family responsibilities, or it is difficult because there is a lot of abuse being a woman MP,” said Harman. “But actually what the facts show is that women are more likely to be selected in seats which are less safe – they are more likely to be selected in marginal seats.”

Despite warnings that only 23% of the candidates to chair select committees were women, Harman said that the elections on Wednesday represented a breakthrough. She highlighted Sarah Wollaston, who is chairing the health committee, Yvette Cooper (home affairs), Meg Hillier (public accounts committee), Rachel Reeves (business) and Nicky Morgan, who became the first female to chair the powerful Treasury select committee.

                    

However, Harman was critical of the most senior woman in parliament: the prime minister herself. Asked about May’s admission in a radio interview that she had shed a tear on election night, the Labour MP said the issue was the state of the economy and public services under her leadership.

“With her as prime minister, there are a lot of people working in the public services who are crying their eyes out, and a lot of people who are needing public services crying their eyes out, and a lot of people feeling worried about having a job in future because under Theresa May they are worried of the economy going over a cliff,” she said.

Today I've written to the Attorney General, Rt Hon Jeremy Wright QC MP, calling on him as the government's senior Law Officer to prevent Tory Ministers from attacking independent legal firms and undermining the rule of law. You can read the letter and the report in The Times - 13 July 2017 below:

7 July 2017 

We have all been appalled at the horrific death toll, injury and loss caused by the Grenfell Tower fire and are devastated for those who’ve lost loved ones and their homes. But it will be particularly chilling for people living in tower blocks, and I’ve heard from a number of constituents in the 54 high-rise blocks in my constituency, frightened about their safety.  

The Grenfell fire took us back to the terrible fire in Lakanal House in 2009 where 3 women and 3 children died.  It was awful to see history repeat itself, with an event greater loss of life which should never have happened.

Again, a block which had undergone refurbishments to improve it was not properly re-inspected after the work and a fire which should’ve been contained in one flat spread and the fire brigade told residents to “stay put” as the fire spread.

In 2013 the Coroner in the Lakanal inquest said those deaths had been avoidable and made recommendations for improving safety in high-rise blocks, greater supervision of maintenance contracts, fire inspections, fitting sprinklers and updating fire regulations. The Tories say they’ve followed the Coroner’s rulings but they haven’t.

While I welcome the announcement that there will be a public inquiry, the Government mustn't wait for the outcome of another inquiry to act.

After the fire I made sure that, even though the House of Commons hadn’t yet reconvened after the General Election, there was a ministerial briefing which took place in Parliament on 15 June 2017.  I spoke in it demanding that the Government: 

• Award Legal Aid to the residents so their voice can be heard in the public inquiry.  The Fire Service and Kensington and Chelsea council will have QCs - at public expense.  It will be a travesty if the residents, who had to run for their lives, just have to sit in the public gallery.
• Ensure that Grenfell Tower residents are rehoused in the area and that problems with their bank, insurance and ID documents are sorted out.
• Make sure that hospitals and emergency services have enough resources to deal with survivors.
• Provide the money to ensure survivors are rehoused in the area, not sent miles away.
• Give all councils the resources they need to increase fire inspections, supervise contractors working on improvements and install sprinklers.
• Review and update building regulations. 

Over three weeks have passed since the Grenfell tragedy and the Government have been too slow to act to ensure that tenants living in other tower blocks are safe. 

When the Prime Minister made a statement in the House of Commons on 22 June, I challenged her to get a grip on the tragedy personally and use Cobra to call together all local authorities to require them to check the cladding on every one of their tower blocks, and to give councils the resources they need to conduct these inspections, to replace cladding if found to be combustible and fit sprinklers – all within a specified timescale. As Southwark MPs, Helen Hayes MP, Neil Coyle MP and I have written to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government to ask for a commitment that the council will not have to divert money away from other much needed improvements to pay for this and should be able to waive the charges to leaseholders.

The last Labour government invested billions of pounds improving council homes but the Tories have made deep cuts. Councils want to improve fire safety but since 2010 the Government has slashed their budgets by half, making it harder to supervise contractors and impossible to afford the unprecedented costs of urgent safety inspections and sprinklers in the wake of Grenfell.

The Government is responsible for the safety of people in social housing and cuts cost lives.  I will continue to press the Prime Minister to provide our council with the money it needs and work with Southwark Council to satisfy myself that all tenants in tower blocks in my constituency are safe. 

It was great to welcome Angela Rayner MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Education, to Camberwell & Peckham as our special guest for the General Election thank you party this evening. Angela talked Labour's energetic election campaign and how we can keep taking the fight to the Tories.

About Angela Rayner MP: she was elected as Ashton-under-Lyne's MP in 2015.

Angela started work as a care assistant for the elderly, where she got her first taste of trade unionism in fighting low pay and poor working conditions. As a mother of three, she has juggled child care with low paid shift work.

Angela rose through the ranks of UNISON, serving as Branch Secretary for Stockport Council before being elected to represent 200,000 public sector workers across the North West, including school support staff, refuse workers, cleaners and hospital technicians.

She has served on Labour’s National Policy Forum and helped ensure the Labour Government’s go-ahead for Capitalisation Funding to deliver equal pay for women working in the public sector. Low pay, the impact of austerity on working people and the future of the National Health Service are amongst her key political priorities.