Last month, every councillor in Southwark came together to call on the government to lift the ban on asylum seekers’ right to work.
Powerful speeches were met with rapturous applause from every member of the council.
The message was clear – Southwark stands against the Conservatives and their appalling immigration policies.
You would therefore imagine that these same Labour Councillors would be horrified that their party pledged to continue using inhumane ‘prison ship’ barges to house asylum seekers, a cornerstone of the Conservative Governments’ hostile approach.
Yet, we’ve heard nothing. No condemnation. No objections. Zilch!
Even after the Tory Deputy Chairman said “If they don’t like barges then they should f*** off back to France.” – we’ve heard ZERO condemnation from the Labour Party, or any of Southwark’s Labour councillors or MPs.
What kind of opposition doesn’t call out such blatant hatred and hostility from our ruling party?
In July, Labour also shamefully U-turned on their support for self-ID for Trans people, to the despair of the LGBTQ+ community.
Just a week prior to that, the Leader of our Council joined me at the very first Southwark Pride where we celebrated the whole, diverse LGBTQ+ community and recognized the need to support all LGBTQ+ folk.
I’ve since written to the Council Leader encouraging him to condemn his party’s reckless disregard for an already vulnerable group. Their silence is deafening!
Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised, I got the same response when I asked him to confirm that trans women are women during the last local election after a member of his Southwark Labour Cabinet refused to do so.
These are merely the latest in a string of deeply concerning policy positions from a Labour Party leadership, and apparent government in waiting, shifting to the right just to get into Number 10.
In Southwark, we believe in supporting struggling families. These are the same families Keir Starmer’s is refusing to help by lifting the two child benefit cap. What is the point of Labour if they won’t help pull children out of poverty?
In Southwark, our local Labour council claims to be trying to tackle the climate emergency but their national Labour Party have pledged to not revoke the new oil and gas licenses that will accelerate the climate emergency.
In response to 500 voters in leafy Uxbridge, Keir Starmer has said he’s against new Ultra Low Emission Zones.
Labour are not showing the green and environmentalist policies we believe in across Southwark but this Labour administration is refusing to call it out.
Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised from a party that seems insistent on “Making Brexit Work”. They have form on this too, Southwark Labour expelled one of their own councillors for backing a Liberal Democrat motion calling for a second referendum.
Labour councils and local parties rightly stood up against their national parties shameful and disastrous Iraq War. They must do the same now! If not, our next government risks being as regressive as the last. We don’t need Red Tories in power.
Southwark Labour need to grow a backbone and show that the values we stand for in Southwark, we stand for across the country.