The packed panel at Liberty’s Labour conference fringe last night drew in the crowds, eager to hear reflections from leading journalists, politicians and campaigners on the state of the liberal left.
Picture (L-R): Diane Abbott MP, Shadow Minister for Public Health; Kevin Maguire, Associate Editor, Daily Mirror; Doreen Lawrence; Shami Chakrabarti, Director of Liberty; Emily Thornberry MP, Shadow Attorney General; Polly Toynbee, The Guardian; Richard Howitt MEP
In response to a question about the blacklisting scandal, MEP for the East of England and long-time human rights advocate, Richard Howitt, got the discussion going. “Labour rights are human rights,” he stressed, and in the wake of revelations about the scale of blacklisting in the construction industry, we could do worse than follow the example of the Welsh Government which doesn’t award contracts to companies involved in these unethical practices. Associate Editor of the Mirror, Kevin Maguire, was quick to point out that revelations about bad practice in the construction industry are likely the tip of the iceberg. There has been an Inquiry into the phone-hacking scandal, where’s the public inquiry interrogating this grave affront to freedom of association? Diane Abbott, veteran of the Labour rebellion against 42 days and countless other civil liberties battles, identified blacklisting as part of a wider anti-Trade Union movement dating back to the Thatcher era. Meanwhile inspirational race relations campaigner and dear friend to Liberty, Baroness Doreen Lawrence, gave us a salutary reminder that blacklisting can come in many forms. In one of the darkest chapters in the history of the Met, her own family were targeted by the police for intrusive surveillance whilst grieving for their murdered son.
Moving on to Syria, Shadow Attorney General Emily Thornberry explained her legal advice to the party leadership: the Government’s case for military intervention in Syria was not legally sound. Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee was clear that the response to Syria showed the party had learnt the lessons of Iraq; on this Ed Miliband was the hero of the hour. On the Parliamentary vote, Diane Abbott welcomed the fact that it was the people, through their elected parliamentary representatives, who made the decision on military action.
No sooner had the Shadow Justice Secretary, Sadiq Khan, taken his seat than he was on his feet again, making clear his commitment to the Human Rights Act and the deep concerns he has about stop and search; particularly powers which don’t require any suspicion of criminality. “We police by consent,” he stressed, and we’ve all seen statistics showing the disproportionate use of stop and search against young Black and Asian men. How can we expect people to co-operate with the police and have faith in them if they feel targeted and marginalised? At a time when senior figures in Government are ratcheting up attacks on our human rights protections, Sadiq reminded us that it is thanks to the rights enshrined in the Human Rights Act that victims of rape can no longer be cross-examined by their alleged attackers.
No human rights event at Labour conference could conclude without discussion of the impact of the Government’s vicious assaults on access to justice. Emily Thornberry knows only too well the impact of cuts to legal aid, with the devastating news that Tooks Chambers, her old set, are to close as a result. She reminded us that it was Tooks that took on Doreen Lawrence’s fight for justice, Tooks that represented the Birmingham Six and the Guildford Four and acted at the Inquest into the death of Jean Charles de Menezes. We are all the poorer for the loss of these great advocates for justice and, if the Government gets its way, this will be just the start. The residency test proposed by the Ministry of Justice would mean that women who faced sexual abuse at Yarl’s Wood detention centre would no longer be able to seek legal advice. The Shadow Attorney General pledged her commitment to the cause. “We must fight this,” she implored.
Shadow Minister Diane Abbott brought the event to a close by acknowledging New Labour’s chequered history on civil liberties but making a bold, positive statement for the future. Yes, Labour’s record of playing politics with fear is not a good one, but the test of a society’s commitment to civil liberties is how it treats the marginalised and unpopular minorities. “Sometimes we must take a stand in advance of public opinion,” she urged, “because it is the right thing to do”."
