Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill

Debate between Apsana Begum and Nigel Evans

2nd reading & 2nd reading - Day 1
Monday 15th March 2021 Commons Chamber

[Apsana Begum (Poplar and Limehouse) (Lab)]

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, for calling me to speak in this incredible important and timely debate.

Those of us who continuously rejected the recent Covert Human Intelligence Sources Bill did so partly because of the impact that it would have on the freedom to protest. That freedom is being challenged yet again today, through the authoritarian measures proposed in this Bill.

This weekend, people across the country watched in horror the visual evidence of the disgraceful police action towards peaceful attendees of a vigil to mourn the murder of Sarah Everard and to express a collective anger and despair that so many women still suffer violence at the hands of men as part of their everyday life. Despite the Government’s attempt to conjure up smoke and mirrors earlier today, a spot of damage control if you like, this incident exactly demonstrates that there are still serious questions about the powers that our police forces have, the way that these powers are executed, towards whom they are targeted, how they are scrutinised, and how those with such powers are held to account.

The Government regularly express their concern about human rights in other countries. If enacted, however, the Bill before the House today would

“expose already marginalised communities to profiling and disproportionate police powers through the expansion of stop and search, and Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities may face increased police enforcement through the criminalisation of trespass.”

Those are not my words, but the words of the director of the well-respected human rights organisation, Liberty.

Protests are often a space for the most marginalised to make their voices heard. In the past year, we have seen that in the Black Lives Matter protests and we have seen it over this past weekend. Just as police rode into protesters on horses last year, so, too, did they violently grab women on Saturday night.

Freedom of speech intrinsically linked to the freedom of protest should be enshrined in our legislation so that it is available to all. The Bill, however, would give the Government even more power to decide whether a protest should be allowed to go ahead. Given that our current Home Secretary refers to anti-racist Black Lives Matter protesters as “thugs”, it is no wonder that people up and down the country are alarmed. The crux of the matter goes beyond that. The right to protest must be protected or else we find ourselves on an extremely worrying path, with a totalitarian Government able to silence whoever they choose.

Despite the rhetoric, all evidence indicates that this Bill is unlikely even to cut crime and to make those whom it intends to protect safer. Successive Governments have brought in longer sentences and created even more prison places, and that has not reduced crime or slowed the rate of offending.

The impact of this Bill will be felt by marginalised communities more than any other. It will be felt by women, unable to protest at the everyday violence they face. It will be felt by ethnic minority communities, Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities, trade unions, anti-racist campaigners and climate emergency campaigners—

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans)]

Order. I am afraid we must leave it there.

Point of Order

Debate between Apsana Begum and Nigel Evans

Tuesday 2nd February 2021 Commons Chamber

[Apsana Begum (Poplar and Limehouse) (Lab) [V]]

On a point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. I wish to inform the House that in my speech yesterday during the Opposition day debate on protecting tenants and leaseholders from unsafe cladding, I made reference to the Ballymore Group in relation to remediation costs. I said with regard to the example of New Providence Wharf:

“The recent update I have received about New Providence Wharf is that the remediation costs are set to be between £12.5 million and £25 million. These are astronomical figures to fall on the shoulders of those living in the development. With only £5,000 offered by Ballymore”—[Official Report, 1 February 2021; Vol. 688, c. 707.]

I regret to inform the House that I had mistyped this number in my speech, and that the figure I should have stated is £500,000. As soon as it was brought to my attention, I sought to inform the House of this correction and to apologise. I am most grateful to you, Mr Deputy Speaker, for graciously enabling me to do so.

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans)]

I am sure that the House is grateful to the hon. Member for taking the earliest opportunity to place that correction on the record. We will leave it there.

Bill Presented

Driving Tests (Repayment of Test Fees) Bill

Presentation and First Reading (Standing Order No. 57)

Kirsten Oswald, supported by Anne McLaughlin and David Linden, presented a Bill to authorise the repayment of fees for driving tests delayed as a result of an emergency.

Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time tomorrow, and to be printed (Bill 250).

Covid-19: Emergency Transport and Travel Measures in London Boroughs

Debate between Apsana Begum and Nigel Evans

Wednesday 4th November 2020 Commons Chamber

[Apsana Begum (Poplar and Limehouse) (Lab)]

I thank my hon. Friend for securing this important debate. I want to draw her attention to a recent report by the Institute of Race Relations called “The London Clearances”. This report found that regeneration projects are being used to actively dispossess working-class communities and low-income families of their homes. This process, which is commonly known as social cleansing, has mostly been understood as a class issue. However, given the over-representation of black, Asian and ethnic minority communities in social housing and the racialised language used to describe London’s post-war housing estates—for example, in the aftermath of the 2011 riots —I believe this is also very much a race issue. Certainly, constituents of mine have been in touch about the impact this is having on them and the fact that some of the measures have been targeted not towards housing estates in very congested or overcrowded areas but areas that have terraced homes—

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans)]

Order. I am sorry, but interventions by their very nature should be short, and that was very long.