Who will be Labour's next leader?

A good summary of declared and likely candidates for Labour Leadership on BBC here. There is still time for others to put their hat into the ring. I have not decided who to support but to be clear we have hundreds of thousands of families and children who are homeless, destitute and poverty stricken. We desperately need a Labour Government in power. It needs a leader who can unite the Party, hold Johnson to account until the next General Election and then win it. Nothing else really matters.

"Lisa Nandy
The 40-year-old MP for Wigan became the fourth Labour figure to declare she is standing for the leadership, in a letter to the Wigan Post. One of a clutch of shadow ministers who resigned from Jeremy Corbyn's frontbench after the Brexit referendum, she has been urging her party to concentrate on winning support in smaller towns.

Sir Keir Starmer
The 57-year old shadow Brexit secretary has said he is "seriously considering" running. He is likely to be seen as the centrist candidate in the race. A passionate Remainer, he was director of public prosecutions before entering Parliament.

Rebecca Long-Bailey
The 40-year old shadow business secretary is another MP to announce she is considering going for the top job. One of a new generation of MPs on the left of the party who is close to Mr Corbyn's inner circle, she represented Labour in a TV debate during the election.

Jess Philips
The 38-year-old Birmingham Yardley MP became the third Labour figure to declare she is standing for the leadership. She has been one of the most outspoken critics of Jeremy Corbyn's leadership and the party's record on tackling anti-Semitism, bullying and harassment.

Emily Thornberry
The 59-year old shadow foreign secretary was the first to declare she is running to succeed Mr Corbyn. She deputised for him at Prime Minister's Questions, but was replaced after publicly calling for Labour to back another EU referendum.

Yvette Cooper
The 50-year old, a former cabinet minister under Gordon Brown's premiership, said last month that she would "decide over Christmas" whether to stand, and has made no statement since then. She was an unsuccessful challenger to Jeremy Corbyn during the 2015 leadership contest.

Clive Lewis
The 48-year-old shadow Treasury minister resigned from the party's frontbench last year in order to oppose the bill triggering the Brexit process. An early supporter of Jeremy Corbyn, he rejoined in January last year".

"drive slum landlords out of the market" London Labour Conference #LabLon17

Housing motion 1 (my speech)

"Conference, John Gray, Chair of Greater London Unison Labour Link moving motion 1 on housing as amended by compositing.

Conference, You may be surprised that unison, a union which is a predominantly public sector trade union has submitted a motion that concentrates on reform and change of the private rental sector.

I am in fact a housing worker who has worked in social housing in London for the past 25 years. However, it is a fact, particularly in London that more of our members now live in private rental sector than in social housing, many of whom due to poverty pay, are dependent upon housing benefit, to live in damp, overcrowded, expensive and insecure accommodation. So while unison campaign strongly in favour of a mass building programme for public homes at a social rent, the private rental sector is key to us and I would imagine to all of you here today

What inadequate levels of local housing allowances means (at the risk of teaching some of you to suck eggs) is that hundreds of low paid Londoners are being forced out of London or face spending nearly all of their disposable income on making up their rent. Housing benefit will not cover the full real cost of the rent.

I have trade union members who have responsible jobs delivering public services who rely on food banks and 2nd or even 3rd jobs in the evenings and weekends to pay the rent and survive.

Even public service worker on better pay find London completely unaffordable. Recently the chief executive of a large London housing association said that many of her staff and I quote “lived in shared houses, or even shared bedrooms, or living in places that are disgusting. If they were in the social sector we would consider them homeless in those circumstances.”

This is not unique and I am sure all of you here will also be able to share horror stories about friends, family or work colleagues being exploited and living in similar disgusting housing conditions but who live in fear of even challenging their landlord because they fear eviction for doing so.

So this is why we not only desperately need rent controls and more affordable rents in London we also need greater security of tenure and protection from eviction when tenants complain against disrepair and exploitation.

We do need borough wide licensing of landlords but also we also vitally need guaranteed minimum standards for all. We cannot just licence slum landlords and take fees from them we must drive them out of the property market.

Finally conference, as important as radical reform of the private sector is, I must agree with our key note speaker Emily Thornberry in her speech yesterday that the solution to the wider housing crisis is quite simple. Just build more homes.

Thank you. Please support the motion".

Axe the Housing Act

Picture is from the Defend Council Housing lobby against the Housing and Planning Bill in the House of Commons earlier this month. A number of MPs, Lords, Tenant representatives, campaigners and trade unions came to speak at it.

I was late due to a union commitment and missed Labour Leader, Jeremy Corbyn, but managed to hear Bethnal Green MP, Rushanara Ali, call for unity in order to oppose the bill. Later Diane Abbot MP, spoke about the need to build more and more Council Homes as the only real solution to the housing crisis, while Emily Thornberry described the housing misery of so many of her constituents, which is why she is known as the "Housing, Housing, Housing MP".

The Bill will steal homes from hard pressed Councils to pay the Tory election bribe on Right to buy for Housing association tenants and it will double or triple the rents of many social tenants who work and likely to result in mass evictions.

I spoke later on why UNISON is so opposed to the Bill. Out big issue is where will low paid families and key workers be able to afford to live in the future?

Not only do we have around 100,000 trade union members who work in social housing but we have 1.3 million predominately low paid, female members, many of which cannot afford a decent home to buy or rent. A recent survey found that a third of our members had grown up children still living with them and now twice as many live in private rented accommodation as in the social rented sector.

After the lobby I went to watch in the gallery the actual debate on the Housing Bill in the House of Commons. I saw Labour and other opposition MPs rip the bill to pieces and completely out of touch rich Tory MPs try to defend it on the grounds that it will benefit families who earn £100,000 per year!

The Bill is now law and despite some concessions is still vile. However, it does not come in force until next year and the Government will have to return to Parliament for approval on regulations etc so there is still time to campaign, oppose and axe!
  

Class: Parliamentary Launch "Why Equality Matters"

Collage is from the Parliamentary launch last Wednesday evening of "Class" The "Centre for Labour and Social Studies". A new "left" think tank.

The launch featured its latest report "Why Equality Matters". Which is a more populist and accessible version of the book "The Spirit Level - Why Equality is better for everyone". 

The meeting was packed with loads of Labour MPs. Including Stephen Timms from East Ham.

Steve Hart from Unite chaired the meeting, Emily Thornberry MP spoke first, then we had John Trickett MP, Owen Jones, Professor Richard Wilkinson and new TUC General Secretary Frances O'Grady. Check out my twittering here on the event (31 Oct).

I asked the question about whether we were really preaching to the converted here tonight when we should be asking what actual policies will be needed to bring about a more equal society. Should we be honest with the electorate, that everyone will have to pay more in taxes not just the super rich, to bring about a society that benefits everyone? (such as truly affordable housing and childcare)

Owen Jones responded by saying that at first we we need to start with a tax on the rich and make sure that they do not evade their taxes, then we could be more ambitious. The wealth of the Sunday Times "Rich List" has grown during this "recession" by more than the total sum of the deficit.

Frances O'Grady was fiery and passionate in her response. Growth in real wages is key in reducing inequality and recession. UK companies have reduced wages and accumulated £750 billion in reserves. No wonder we have no demand in our economy.

Afterwards I met up with my best ever blogging mate, Dave Stroppy, (nee Osler) and we went with UNISON comrades to sort the world out at the Red Lion.

Middle picture hat tip Seph Brown

Next Steps for Labour? Progressive London meeting

Last night I went to a packed meeting of Progressive London at Congress House. Considering that the Labour Party had just been beaten and we now have a Conservative led Government the atmosphere was remarkably positive and even upbeat.

Some brief thoughts on each speaker and the Q&A. The usual health warning about the literal accuracy of my hastily scribbled notes.

The meeting itself was ably chaired by Joy Johnson. CWU General Secretary, Billy Hayes kicked off condemning the recent injunction obtained by British Airways against today’s strike and the need to defend public services from cuts. He pointed out that the public deficit is only so high because of the collapse of tax revenues caused by the Banker’s recession. Future Party funding and retaining the trade union link with Labour was a key concern.

Mehdi Hasan from New Statesmen. He is the only panel member who was not a Labour Party member but saw himself “on the left” and a “critical friend” (whatever that means with a journalist?). Labour lost 90 seats and a million votes but there was no “3rd place” meltdown. The Tories and Liberals lost also. This was not “1997” and with a coalition of the likes of Ian Duncan Smith and Chris Huhne as well as Tebbit and Kennedy, Labour should have a good chance of winning office within 5 years. But need a complete rethink. Contrition and learn lessons. Make 3 apologies. Iraq, civil liberties and the deregulation of financial markets. Don’t go to the right over issues such as immigration. The “Great British Public” is to the left of New Labour. Predicted that the CONLIBS “married in haste and will repent at leisure”.

Chris McLaughlin, the editor of Tribune (and a former Labour Councillor in Newham!). Clegg never wanted a coalition with Labour. Labour now needs a leader to fit its policies and not policies to fit the leader. Reject the free market culture. The BNP still need to be watched since they got their highest ever share of the Parliamentary vote (2%). Get rid of Trident.

Newly elected Labour MP for Bolton Wigan and former Hammersmith and Fulham Councillor, Lisa Nandy. She reminded us all not to forget the many good things done by Labour in the last 13 years. Labour has to reflect and learn. Immigration is key issue but one that we failed to explain. We made excuses for social policy failings such as the failure to build sufficient housing. Instead of ignoring difficult problems we should be challenging them. She gave a  very confident and articulate speech.

Emily Thornberry re-elected MP for Islington South and who bucked the trend and increased her majority. Brought up herself in a Council estate by a single mother. Labour needs to support the idea of “Big Government” as a central ideology since this is the only way to deal with the huge problems facing us. She won in Islington by working with the unions and developing a “door step” culture in the Party and being on the estates. Getting the working class vote out. Treating the electorate with respect and not telling lies like her Liberal Democrat opponents. They spoke to 6,000 people in 4 weeks. She is proud to be Labour and it is a proud movement with a great future.

Last but not least was Ken Livingstone. Labour did have a good first term (devolution and minimum wage) thanks to the legacy of John Smith. But the Party conference was transferred away from being a "People's Parliament" to a media mirage. First the power of the CLP’s was broken then the unions were taken in by promises of access and influence. Read Alastair Campbell's diary to see the contempt in which the unions were actually held and how Neil Kinnock (no friend of Ken) was as far back as 1995 so rude about New Labour and predicted it would fail. Labour was lucky that there had been a collection of wankers leading the Tory Party or we would have lost before. God was good to us. It was not Gordon Brown being grumpy on YouTube that we lost.

He referred to the book “The Spirit level” and how more equal societies such as Norway are far better societies. We need to redistribute wealth. We need the political will to make changes and bring to an end the neo-liberal nonsense. The deficit even in 4 years will still be far lower than it has been for the 2/3rd of the last 200 years. A 1/3rd less than Clement Atlee faced in 1945 when he then went on to create the welfare state. The public are with us. In London we have a 2% Labour lead. It is important to have a new leader but we must change the structure of the Party and return Conference to being the Parliament of working and middle class people.

There was quite a lively and wide ranging Q&A. I managed to ask the panel a question. I agreed that we should be reviewing and changing policies and structures but we also need to win the “Battle of ideas” with our opponents. Our ideas did appear to become tired towards the end and we need to think afresh and revitalise if we are to win. I also said that I came from Newham where we had won on May 6th 63- nil. Which went down okay with the audience and the panel (but Ken did come back and say that the structures were vital). UNISON London Regional Secretary, Linda Perks and Unite Regional Secretary, Steve Hart, also asked questions.

Emily reminded everyone to be courteous during the leadership campaign and the necessary debate about the future direction of the Party. After all there is “nothing more uncomradely than the Labour Party at times”.

I enjoyed the debate and the spread of views but I do think that there is a danger that the debate could descend into a battle about what should have been done by the last Labour government rather than planning the future of the next.

Good to speak to Labour Party bloggers – Tom Miller and Peter Kenyon (NEC meeting today).

Workers Memorial Day – “Remember the dead but fight for the living”.

Today Islington MP Emily Thornberry joined local Councillors and trade union members to mark Workers Memorial Day.

Emily helped plant a cherry tree in a new London housing development in tribute to those who have died at work or due to work related ill-health.

Immediately beforehand at noon Tuesday 28 April 2009 there was a minute’s silence. The event was jointly organised by Circle Anglia UNISON housing association members and Circle Anglia Group by its joint health and safety committee.

Workers Memorial Day is an internationally recognised event where those who have been killed in accidents at work or who have died of industrial diseases such as asbestos related cancer are remembered. It is also a campaigning day on promoting health & safety at work issues.

A purple “forget-me-not” is worn to remember those who have died.

The ceremony took place at the new Circle Anglia shared ownership development at the Blue Court, Sherbourne Street, Islington, N1 3FJ. One reason why the site was chosen was that the previous building had to be demolished due to large amount of asbestos in it.

John Gray UNISON convenor at Circle Anglia and Housing Association Branch safety officer said:

“UNISON estimate that some 1,600 people are killed each year due to work related accidents and some 50,000 die every year from work related illnesses including cancer. Today we must all remember the dead but also campaign for the living. Employers and unions must work together to do all they can to protect people at work”.

Islington UNISON member Cathy Daniels said:

“This day reminds people why health & safety is important. It is not about kill joys stopping “egg and spoon races” it is about real hazards affecting real people”.

Emily Thornberry MP said:

“A large number of people die each year from work-related accidents or illnesses and so I am pleased to support the important work that UNISON members do to protect workers.”

Check out Prime Minister Gordon Brown statement on Workers Memorial Day (WMD) and the press release from DWP on consultation about this day being nationally recognised! Also the excellent UNISON website on WMD 2009 and the Health & Safety Executive website on WMD.

Picture (l-r)
John Gray UNISON convenor Circle Anglia Housing Association, Cllr Paul Smith, Robert Brown Circle Anglia Safety Manager, Emily Thornberry MP Islington South and Finsbury, “Growing Concern” Gardeners Pasquale Calabresey and Jim Kelly, Islington UNISON member Cathy Daniels and Cllr James Murray.

(hat-tip thingy based on UNISON Housing Association branch Press release)

TULO Parliamentary Reception for Claude Moraes MEP and Anne Fairweather

Just back from this TULO meeting at the House of Commons which was sponsored by Islington South & Finsbury MP, Emily Thornberry.

Emily is on the left of the photo addressing the meeting while Claude and Anne are standing on the right.

Claude is defending his seat with with fellow MEP Mary Honeyball. While Anne Fairweather is trying to be elected for the first time as a London MEP. Anne is in 3rd place in the Labour Party list for London (its a PR election). At the moment Labour holds 3 out of 9 MEPs but the number of London MEPs is decreasing at the June election to 8 (due to new countries joining the EU).

Claude spoke about the importance of ensuring that enough Labour MEPs are elected in order to help their fellow socialists in the European parliament continue to pass progressive policies such as the new rights for agency workers and ending the opt out from the Working Time Directive. Also they have passed much needed social legislation such as European Works Councils and the landmark proposal for an EU wide ban on discrimination in the provision of goods and services. Labour MEPs are also fighting the threats to trade union collective agreements following the adverse legal judgments of Viking, Lavall & Ruffert.

The message is don’t let anyone (or any Tory tabloid) tell you that the elections in June are not important.

I had a chat afterwards with Claude and Emily about attending possible Worker Memorial Day (WMD) events. Which I will see if I can organise via TULO. While Anne accepted an invitation to help out in the Newham Royal Docks by-election.