Black Maternal Health Awareness Week 2022

Bell Ribeiro-Addy Excerpts

Wednesday 2nd November 2022 Westminster Hall

[Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Streatham) (Lab)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered Black maternal health awareness week.

Thank you very much, Mr Gray; it is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship. I thank my colleagues for their kind points of order. I am thankful, as always, that this debate has been awarded, so that we can once again have this vital discussion about the issues surrounding black maternal health.

Whenever I discuss black maternal health, I always take time to repeat the statistics around black maternal mortality. The reason I do that is twofold. First, the statistics are harrowing, and it is only by confronting them that we can truly begin to address the issue. Secondly, the statistics have not changed at all—the findings that I repeat have not improved, despite this issue having been raised for a number of years. I know that it may take time before we see a real change in statistics, but the Government are yet to introduce any meaningful measures that give us confidence that the statistics will change any time soon. Most notably, they will not even look at producing a target.

I repeat it for everyone who may not have heard that black women are four times more likely to die in pregnancy or childbirth, women of mixed heritage are three times more likely to die in pregnancy or childbirth, and Asian women are twice as likely to die in pregnancy or childbirth. Black babies have a 121% increased risk of stillbirth and a 50% increased risk of neonatal death. Asian babies have a 55% increased risk of stillbirth and a 66% increased risk of neonatal mortality. Black women have a 43% higher risk of miscarriage, and black ethnicity is now regarded as a risk factor for miscarriage.

The last time we had this debate, one of the key themes that kept coming up was data, whether it was Members such as myself raising the fact that the data exists and research has been done—we just need the Government to engage with it—or the Minister who responded, the right hon. Member for Mid Bedfordshire (Ms Dorries), stating that black women are under-represented in the Government’s data. I am pleased to say to the Minister responding today that there is now even more research out there.

Since the last time we had this debate, Five X More has carried out and released the findings of its black maternal experiences survey. This is the largest survey of black women’s maternal experiences ever conducted in the UK. It gathered responses from over 1,300 women and looked at their experience of maternal care. The report highlights all the negative interactions that women experienced with healthcare professionals, from feeling discriminated against in their care to receiving a poor standard of care, which put their safety at risk, and being denied pain relief because of the ridiculous trope that black women are less likely to feel pain.

The report goes on to reveal how the discriminatory behaviour and attitudes that black, Asian and ethnic minority women face have been shown negatively to impact women’s clinical outcomes and their experiences of care. More than half the respondents reported facing those challenges with healthcare professionals during maternity care, and 43% of women reported feeling discriminated against, while 42% of women reported feeling that the standard of care they received during childbirth was poor or very poor, and 36% reported feeling dissatisfied with how their concerns during labour were addressed by professionals.

Further to that, 42% of respondents reported feeling that their safety had been put at risk by professionals during labour or during the recovery period. Of the women who experienced negative maternity outcomes, 61% reported that they were not even offered additional support to deal with the outcome of their pregnancy.

[Jim Shannon]

I am pleased that the hon. Lady has brought this debate to Westminster Hall, and although there might not be big numbers here today to discuss the matter, it is of great importance. Does she not agree that health trusts, which she has referred to, must ensure that no matter the level of the black, Asian and minority ethnic population, staff are adequately trained to deal with the differences with respect to different ethnic groups? Does she further agree that the messaging that comes from the Minister and the Department in this debate is the most important tool that health trusts have to ensure that women of all ages and all ethnic groups are clearly understood and supported, no matter where they are and no matter what the statistics and numbers may be?

[Bell Ribeiro-Addy]

I thank the hon. Member for his intervention, and he is absolutely right. I will come to training soon enough, and to what I believe individual trusts should be doing.

In addition to the Five X More report, Birthrights has recently published the findings of its inquiry into racial injustice and human rights in maternity care. The report uncovers the stories behind the statistics and demonstrates that it is racism—not broken bodies, as we are often told—that is the root of many of the inequalities of maternity outcomes and experiences. The study found that on a number of occasions, black women’s safety was put at risk while they were receiving care. They were ignored or their pain was dismissed, and they experienced direct or indirect racism from care givers. They were subject to dehumanisation. Their right to informed consent was violated and they faced structural barriers to receiving healthcare. Those women were going through one of the most painful experiences of their lives—one that can leave them at their most vulnerable—yet they faced institutional racism that impacted their health and the health of their babies.

During a debate on this subject last year, I called on the Government to launch an inquiry into institutional racism and racial bias in the NHS, as well as in the field of medical education. I reiterate that call today and hope the Minister will address the issue of systemic racism in medical care.

In addition to those two reports, the Muslim Women’s Network recently published a study that reviewed the experiences of Muslim women in maternity care. The report encompasses the maternity experiences of over 1,000 Muslim women, and it once again revealed that a huge proportion of respondents received poor or very poor quality care. There are many examples of substandard care by health professionals, such as dismissing concerns and, again, pain; not offering treatment to relieve symptoms; inconsistency in the way that foetal growth was measured; substandard clinical knowledge; and vital signs being missed, which contributed to poor healthcare.

Some 57% of women felt that they were not treated with respect and dignity in the way they were spoken to or in other acts of care giving, but perhaps the most shocking finding of the report was that 1% of the women who responded reported that their baby had died before or during labour, or within 28 days of birth. In a sample of this size, that equates to 10 women, which is way higher than the three to four who should have been expected.

Those statistics are shocking, but the stories are even more shocking. Each of those reports includes harrowing stories of women being neglected, and of their pain being ignored and their concerns dismissed, resulting in a near miss or, indeed, the loss of their baby. In one account, a woman was not believed when she informed the midwife that she was ready to push. It states that when she eventually began to push,

“Her baby came out still enveloped in the placenta. Several doctors came and she was taken to theatre as it became an emergency situation. It was touch and go but she survived. Due to heavy blood loss she was in a coma for three days. Her baby had to be given intensive care.”

In another account, a woman reports that her baby was struggling to breathe after birth. She says:

“I was told that it was a normal thing for newborns. No checks were done to put my mind at ease. After about 20 mins, my baby stopped breathing. Efforts were made to resuscitate her, but she later died in NICU.”

One woman recalled that during her first check-up, a nurse said that she was shocked that she knew who the father of her baby was because people like her do not usually know.

There are thousands of similar stories of black, Asian and minority ethnic women having negative experiences with healthcare professionals and maternity care. There is an urgent need to address the crisis in maternity care, and I sincerely hope that the Minister will set out concrete steps that her Department and the Government will take to address the problem.

I sincerely hope those measures will look beyond treating black, Asian and minority ethnic women as a problem. We are not the problem and our bodies are not broken. There is no flaw in our genetics and we do not need to be dealt with in a way that reduces negative statistics by just pushing the problem away. The suggestion that black women should be induced earlier because a lot of these issues present after 40 weeks is ridiculous.

The solutions need to address the distinct problems in maternity care; all the evidence suggests institutional racism. We must address biases and assumptions about black women, train medical staff to recognise common symptoms in black women, and tackle the barriers that prevent black women from receiving the quality of maternity care they deserve. That is where the problems lie, and we will overcome them by directly addressing racial disparities.

Last year when we debated this subject, the responding Minister asked me and others to continue to hold her feet to the fire on this issue. I thought they were really receptive and that we were finally going to see some meaningful steps to tackle maternal health disparities. I left the debate feeling slightly hopeful because so much awareness had been raised by the fantastic campaign groups I mentioned earlier, and there was a lot of support across the House. I was therefore really surprised and quite deflated when the next day the Minister moved Departments in a reshuffle. I know Cabinet reshuffles happen all the time—

[David Linden]

All the time.

[Bell Ribeiro-Addy]

They are a standard part of government, but we have lost count of the Health Secretaries and Ministers covering this brief. Today, we have a Minister from a different Department addressing us. I know it may seem like I am making a party political point, but regardless of reshuffles, Government priorities and resignations, the problems in maternity care continue. Although we cannot have continuity in Government for whatever reason, we need continuity in care and a strategy for dealing with racial disparities in maternity care.

It is hard to see the Government taking action when things are changing so frequently, but I sincerely hope the Minister will assure us that the Government are focused on this issue, regardless of the changes, and that her time in this role will be spent tackling black maternal health disparities.

Black women cannot afford to wait any longer for action to be taken. I do not want to have to stand up in another debate and cite exactly the same statistics without any improvement. I know things take time, but it would be sensational to come back next year and report that at least something had changed. The best way for Ministers to exact that change is to set out clearly what the Government are doing and set a clear target.

The answer I have been given in the past when I have asked for a target is that this does not happen to that many women, so a target does not need to be set. I would flip that round: if it is not that many women, surely we can set a target to address it.

--- Later in debate ---

[Caroline Nokes]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his intervention. I did not think he would be entirely able to resist speaking in the debate. He is right: policies must be data-driven and evidenced, but the evidence is there and has been for many years. We are augmenting and adding to that body of evidence the whole time.

I will not be entirely negative, because we have some great opportunities. I was pleased to see Dame Lesley Regan appointed women’s health ambassador earlier this year. I welcome, reinforce, champion and offer anything I can to help the women’s health strategy. Finally, we have one of those, and I pay tribute to the Minister who was instrumental in getting that published. What we now need from the strategy is outcomes. That has to be the focus. What is happening to drive outcomes, and to ensure that the disparities we know exist are recognised, acted on and reduced? Our goal has to be to reduce that horrendous figure of four times as many maternal deaths for black women. We have to improve the outcomes for black babies, so that there is not, as I think the hon. Member for Streatham said, a more than 100% likelihood of stillbirth—

[Bell Ribeiro-Addy]

Increased risk.

[Caroline Nokes]

Increased risk. The hon. Lady is absolutely right to highlight that as an imperative. We must ensure that we reduce the inequity, of which there are many drivers. She was with me when the Women and Equalities Committee took evidence from Professor Sir Michael Marmot, who talks so compellingly about health inequalities and their drivers.

I will not say that there is anything wrong with black women’s bodies—there is not—but we have to look at housing conditions, air quality and the areas where they live. Air quality is a significant driver of poor health outcomes. We have to look at what we are doing around smoking cessation, which is good for not just black women, but all women. We have to look at obesity, which is, again, a crucial factor for all women.

I look forward to seeing, in the remainder of this Parliament, focused and determined action around obesity, smoking cessation and air quality. There are targets on all those things, but—how can I put this gently?—there has been a little backsliding on some of them. Targets have been pushed into the dim and distant future, and there is less commitment around drives to reduce obesity and smoking, which are incredible drivers of poor health outcomes across the population. We should double down on our commitment to those targets.

I hope that in due course—I get fed up of saying “in due course”, which is a standard ministerial answer—to see a White Paper on health disparities. It is imperative that we get that done, and that the women’s health strategy is seen as a driver to ensure that we improve outcomes. First and foremost, I reiterate the calls from the hon. Member for Streatham for targets. I am never a great fan of targets if they are just there for the collection of targets, but if they work, and we see that in many instances they do, we should have them.

We should have time-limited targets, so that in maybe three years we can look and say, “Nothing has changed.” Looking at the data and the evidence from campaign groups, I see that over 20 years, nothing has changed. I do not want to be here in 20 years’ time giving the same speech on this important issue, feeling that nothing has changed. I look forward to the Minister’s comments, and reiterate my congratulations to the hon. Member for Streatham on calling for today’s debate.

--- Later in debate ---

[Bell Ribeiro-Addy]

I thank all Members for participating in the debate and adding their voices to all those that are calling for steps to be taken to end racial disparities in maternity care. It is always reassuring to hear just how much support there is across the House when the issues are raised. I thank the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon), who is always a huge support in a range of different debates, but who has been particularly helpful today. I also thank the right hon. Member for Romsey and Southampton North (Caroline Nokes), who does fantastic work as the Chair of the Women and Equalities Committee and also as the chair of the APPG on Muslim women.

I will point out some of the disparities that she has touched on, including those detailed in a report from the Muslim Women’s Network. That report showed that Muslim Somali women who had given birth in other parts of Europe found that, although they faced worse discrimination in society in those other parts of Europe, they received much better maternal care in hospitals in those other European countries, namely Norway and Sweden, than they did in the UK. They had better outcomes as well. That is definitely something for us to look at.

My hon. Friend the Member for Putney (Fleur Anderson) and the right hon. Member for Romsey and Southampton North pointed out the different factors that affect black maternal health outcomes, which all come full circle to point to the institutional racism that black women face across society. I thank the hon. Member for Leicester East (Claudia Webbe) very much for raising the issue of the health disparities White Paper. We absolutely need to see the White Paper soon. Without it, I am not sure how we are going to set a benchmark for things changing overall.

The hon. Member for Glasgow North East (Anne McLaughlin) is not here, but she is hugely supportive, and I hope she feels better soon. The hon. Member for Glasgow East (David Linden) did some great work with the all-party parliamentary group on premature and sick babies, and I was pleased to see the group calling for anti-racism across care. That has been particularly important.

Yesterday, we had a lobby in Parliament in which Five X More lobbied parliamentarians. I thank all those who signed the pledge calling on the Government to use existing data to close the gap and to address overall disparities in maternal outcomes. Tinuke and Clo from Five X More continue to punch well above their weight. Five X More is the only black maternal health charity focused specifically on the outcomes for black women, and also the only such charity that I can think of that receives no funding. It has been able to do all this work off its own bat, which is testament to Tinuke and Clo and their dedication to resolving these disparities.

How could I forget my hon. Friend the Member for Bolton South East (Yasmin Qureshi)? I welcome her to her new post of shadow equalities Minister, and I was very pleased to hear her commit the Labour party to bringing about that target. That was very clear, and it shows that the party is listening to what black women have asked for over the past few years when these issues have arisen.

The research has already been done and we simply want the Government to engage with it. While we are calling for more data to be captured, we want the Government to engage with the data that already exists. That is key because so much work has gone on with other organisations, including the Muslim Women’s Network and Birthrights, to produce the reports that we have referenced today, and to lobby and campaign. Those things exist and they need to be acted on.

Those organisations have gone out and spoken to a great many women—sadly, women who did not want to engage with the Government’s surveys, which is worrying and something that needs to change. I pay tribute to all those women because it is difficult to relive your trauma in that way and to recount all those awful things that have happened. I know it has been for me, but I thank all those women who came forward to share their stories. They need to understand, as I am sure they do, that that makes a difference moving forward.

I thank the Minister for her response to the debate and the detail about what is already being done. That is really helpful, and I am pleased to hear a change in attitude as to how these issues are addressed. I have been concerned in the past, particularly with respect to the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities report and some of the responses that I have received personally, about the willingness of Ministers to admit that racial disparities exist and to focus on those, rather than saying that they do not exist. I would encourage you to read all the reports I have referenced today, but you say you have, which is great. Not only the statistics, but the personal accounts, do not make for easy reading, but they definitely make for a greater understanding of what has been happening.

I want to touch on one thing or two things that the Minister said specifically. You are absolutely right that people’s socioeconomic status has a direct effect on health outcomes, but the Five X More report, and the other two reports, found that black women report the same disparities regardless of their level of education and socioeconomic status. We need to look closely at that and acknowledge that the issue is purely racism: institutional racism goes far beyond all the other factors that we would usually expect to have an impact.

I want to leave the Minister with a few more suggestions about things that you might wish to introduce.

[James Gray (in the Chair)]

That she might wish to introduce. The hon. Lady keeps saying “you”, but when you say “you”, you mean me. I am not involved in any of these things. She might do those things.

[Bell Ribeiro-Addy]

My apologies. I would like to leave the Minister with a few more suggestions about measures that her Department might wish to introduce. The first is for the Government to introduce this target. I understand your reasoning—

[James Gray (in the Chair)]

Her.

[Bell Ribeiro-Addy]

I understand the Minister’s reasoning for not having a target. It may appear logical, but given that the data shows that those women’s children have a 43% increased chance of being miscarried, and a 121% increased chance of being stillborn, I do not understand how the Government can say that they will look at all these measures surrounding the issue but will not specifically set a target to bring it to an end. That is not acceptable, and I do not believe that the women who continuously campaign for a target will accept that, so I ask the Minister to look at it again.

I understand that there are great challenges in looking at disparities across the board. All those things need to be addressed and different Departments need to be brought in, but as I said in relation to socioeconomic status and other factors, there is a culture of institutional racism in our NHS, which needs to be resolved. Obviously, that will start with data. The NHS must improve the quality of ethnic coding and ensure that the data is accurately recorded. I am really concerned about how skewed the recording is.

At our APPG meeting yesterday, we heard that even when it comes to simple things such as trying to find out how many women have claimed compensation for things that have happened, the women’s age and the area they have come from is recorded, but their race is not. That seems like a major oversight, especially when other pieces of data are being gathered.

I support Five X More’s call for the Government to introduce an annual maternity survey targeted specifically at black women, similar to the Care Quality Commission’s maternity survey, because I believe that its results could be used to inform public and parliamentary accountability and improve maternity health services. Although few women contributed to the Government’s survey, there is a willingness among black, Asian and minority ethnic women to record their issues and experiences, as the other campaigns have proved.

I reiterate the call for an inquiry into institutional racism in the NHS. That is the only way that we will change some of the outcomes, especially given the information that has been gathered on what the issues are. Yes, we have to look at air quality and other co-morbidities, but until we address racial bias, assumptions among medical staff, and teaching and training, certain things will just not change.

Finally, please engage with the campaigners. I understand that there is a lot of listening going on. In the past few years, there have been more conversations, and they are more likely to be included in working groups, but it is one thing to say, “Yes, we have to look at this. This is really awful,” and another thing entirely to engage with them, work with them across different issues and show that the things they are asking for are being met within the NHS’s plan. Please do engage with the campaigners. They know what they are talking about and have the data that the Government have not been able to collect from women. They understand the issues and are making the right calls about what we need to do to bring this horrible disparity to an end, to close this racial divide and ensure that black women, Asian women and women of mixed heritage have safe births.

Question put and agreed to.

Resolved,

That this House has considered Black Maternal Health Awareness Week.

Transgender Conversion Therapy

Bell Ribeiro-Addy Excerpts

Monday 13th June 2022 Westminster Hall

[Luke Pollard]

I will make some progress, if I may, because I do not want to run out of time. The hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington said that if trans and non-binary people are excluded from the ban, that would be a loophole that would allow these practices in through the back door. It would not be a back door; it would be a trapdoor, through which young LGB people would be pushed. That is why we need to be absolutely clear on this. Intersectionality exists; a person can be both trans and a lesbian, or both trans and bisexual. That intersectionality creates a grey zone in the law, and more people will fall into it if trans and non-binary people are excluded from the ban. That is not right.

[Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Streatham) (Lab)]

Will my hon. Friend give way?

[Luke Pollard]

I will make some more progress, if I may. When I was a spotted, closeted teenager, there were not an awful lot of LGBT role models in society—no professional footballers or Olympic athletes. There are now. We have visibility in our society. I am pleased with all my heart that young people can now see LGBT people both in the public eye and on screen.

As some Members will know, I am an unapologetic fan of Netflix’s “Heartstopper”. I remember being both Nick and Charlie at school. Yasmin Finney, who plays Elle, is epic in her acting; however, for me, it is her class and visibility as a trans actor, and her transfer to the “Doctor Who” universe, that has inspired not only me but young trans people across the world. That visibility and legitimacy has saved lives.

It is that world, as Alice Oseman wrote in “Heartstopper” —where our diversity is celebrated, not excluded; where people are drawn together in a broad hug, not with a big stick—that we should aim for with this legislation. That is why I want every Member in this place to know that this message should go out to young LGBT people: regardless of who you are and who you love, you have the right to be loved, safe and valued, not just by society but in law. That is at the heart of today’s debate. Let us say to young LGB, trans and non-binary people that they are enough, we have listened to them, and we will value them.

Oral Answers to Questions

Bell Ribeiro-Addy Excerpts

Thursday 21st April 2022 Commons Chamber

[Mr Jayawardena]

I am very pleased to know that businesses in my hon. Friend’s constituency, including Carlton Packaging, are receiving support from this Department. Milton Keynes has not only exports worth over £3.4 billion, but a great champion of our trade deals in him. I shall be delighted to work with him to help businesses to use those deals to create jobs and boost wages while lowering prices for consumers.

[Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Streatham) (Lab)]

7. What recent discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues on resolving outstanding EU trade issues.

[The Secretary of State for International Trade (Anne-Marie Trevelyan)]

This Government have delivered the first free trade agreement the EU has ever reached based on zero tariffs and zero quotas. Our collective focus is now on implementing that agreement, ensuring that it delivers for our citizens and businesses. We have established the export support service as the first point of contact for UK businesses looking to export to the EU. Since its launch in October, it has received over 8,000 unique enquiries.

[Bell Ribeiro-Addy]

The export support service is clearly not working. In 2016, the Vote Leave campaign promised us tariff-free trade with the EU with minimum bureaucracy, not another support scheme. We find ourselves in a bureaucratic nightmare with freight delays and red tape blocking what was once hassle-free trade. SMEs in my constituency simply cannot afford the legal advice that is needed to navigate all that red tape. That is no surprise because HMRC data has shown that British trade with the EU has fallen significantly. Can the Secretary of State tell us when the Government will finally deliver on hassle-free, tariff-free trade like we were promised, or will she finally admit that this was never going to happen and that this trade fiasco is going to be the norm for us from now on?

[Anne-Marie Trevelyan]

As I said, the agreement reached has zero tariffs, which is exactly what the hon. Lady asks for. If there are specific businesses in Streatham that have issues and have not been able to get support from the export support service, she should contact me and my team, because 96% of all those who have used it have said to us that they would recommend it to others, which I take as a sign that the system is working. It is there not only to support those who have trouble but to help with discovering how to access new markets. Exporting is often considered difficult, but if we talk to those who do it, they say that they want to champion others. Our export champions, which are businesses that volunteer to speak to others and encourage them to export, are there to help those who are considering it. I would be happy to put some of her local businesses in touch with them as well.

Black History Month

Bell Ribeiro-Addy Excerpts

Thursday 21st October 2021 Commons Chamber

[Abena Oppong-Asare]

I am delighted my right hon. Friend has mentioned that point. It is something I am particularly passionate about as our family worked in the NHS. I am concerned about the Windrush generation, for whom the Government, I have to say, have yet to provide adequate support. I hope the Minister will be able to highlight what support he will be giving to that generation, who contributed so much to the NHS, as my right hon. Friend says.

I also want to mention Lara Alabi, based in Thamesmead, who won a community award for setting up Seniors in Touch, a weekly club for over-50s in Thamesmead, to tackle isolation issues relating to health and lack of confidence.

As well as paying tribute to under-acknowledged black Britons, I want to use this debate to highlight some of the inequalities that continue to affect black people in this country and that I believe the Government must do more to address. The first is black maternity health. There have been two important Westminster Hall debates on this issue over the last year and I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Streatham (Bell Ribeiro-Addy) for leading them. I also pay tribute to the group Five X More, which has done so much to bring the issue up the political agenda. It has highlighted the stark disparity in outcomes that black women face when giving birth in this country.

Black women are four times more likely to die in pregnancy or childbirth. Black women are up to 83% more likely to suffer a near miss during pregnancy. Black babies have a 121% increased risk of stillbirth and a 50% risk of neonatal death. Miscarriage rates are 40% higher in black women, and black ethnicity is regarded as a risk factor for miscarriage. Put simply, giving birth as a black woman is considerably riskier than for women of other ethnicities. The Government know that this inequality exists and now is the time for action.

[Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Streatham) (Lab)]

My hon. Friend has highlighted well the statistics and she will be aware that the Government still have no target to end this. Does she agree that the fact that the Government have decided not to set a target and not to look at institutional racism in the NHS goes no way to solving the issues that she so eloquently raised?

[Abena Oppong-Asare]

I thank my hon. Friend for the work that she has done on this issue. That is completely accurate.

We need a target to end racial maternal health inequalities and an action plan to achieve it. The plan should include action to improve data collection, to improve the support for at-risk women, to implement the recommendations of the Joint Committee on Human Rights’ report on this issue and to identify the barriers to accessing maternal mental health services. But most of all, I urge the Government to listen to the experiences of black women, to engage with them directly, to hear their concerns and to take them seriously.

I turn to another issue that affects black women and girls: the lack of specialist training for police and other agencies supporting black women who are victims of domestic abuse. Here, I pay tribute to the organisation Sistah Space, a domestic abuse charity supporting women of African and Caribbean heritage. I met its representatives recently to discuss their petition to introduce Valerie’s law. That is named in memory of Valerie Forde, who was murdered by her former partner in 2014 alongside their 22-month-old daughter. She had previously asked the police for help after her ex-partner had threatened to burn down her house with her in it, but this was recorded only as a threat to her property.

While that story is shocking, it is sadly not uncommon. Too many black women do not get the support that they need because the police are not trained to spot and deal appropriately with domestic violence in black communities. That includes things such as missing signs of domestic violence on black skin and a lack of cultural knowledge about how threats can be communicated. We need mandatory, specialist training for the police and others on all of this and more. I hope that the Government will seriously consider that as part of the renewed focus on violence against women and girls, given recent events.

I now wish to return to the asks of the Government that I made during the Black History Month debate last year. The first was action to diversify the curriculum. As I said last year, I want our children, black and white, in every single corner of this country, to better understand our national history and our national culture. This, of course, includes the good and the bad and the full range of experiences that people have had. I am pleased to see some progress on that and I pay particular tribute to the Welsh Government, who have become the first UK nation to make the teaching of black, Asian and minority ethnic histories and experiences mandatory in the school curriculum. The OCR exam board has also recently announced that it is doubling the choice of books by writers of colour in its A-level English qualification. But more action is needed from the Government on this, and I hope that the new Secretary of State for Education, who I congratulate on his appointment, will make this a priority. Black history is British history and we need to teach it all year round.

My second ask from the Government last year was to implement a race equality strategy and action plan. There has been much discussion in the past year about the inequality and structural racism that exist in our country, not least in response to the controversial Sewell report, but we have not seen anywhere near enough concrete action from the Government.

A race equality strategy and action plan covering areas such as education, health and employment is desperately needed. It should include specific proposals to address well-known inequalities such as the ethnicity pay gap, unequal access to justice and the impact of the pandemic on black people. I fully support my party’s policy to

“implement a Race Equality Act to tackle structural racial inequality at source”,

following the excellent work of Baroness Doreen Lawrence looking at how the pandemic has impacted black and other minority ethnic groups. I say to the Government: we have seen review after review, but now is the time for action.

I want to be clear that this discussion should not become a conversation about culture wars. In those culture wars, we end up pitting poor white people against poor black people. Some may say to poor white people, “You are in this situation because footballers are taking the knee.” This place is better than that. In Black History Month, our message should be that we want to give black people hope and white people hope. Our message to white people in Black History Month is “Our history is your history too. A lot of what has happened to us involves you, too. We are not saying that you are responsible, but we are saying that we all need to better understand that.”

I will not allow us to be divided. When we are divided, extremism flourishes. I will not allow that on my watch. Black History Month tells me to tell you that we learn from our past to build a better future. We must learn from our past to build a better future.

Global Britain

Bell Ribeiro-Addy Excerpts

Thursday 30th January 2020 Commons Chamber

[Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Streatham) (Lab)]

I am pleased to follow fantastic maiden speeches by the hon. Members for Wolverhampton South West (Stuart Anderson) and for West Bromwich West (Shaun Bailey), as well as that by the hon. Member for Aberdeen South (Stephen Flynn), whom I congratulate on the birth of his new baby.

I am truly humbled and grateful to the people of Streatham for electing me as their Member of Parliament, as well as to my family, the hard-working members of the Streatham Labour party who pounded the streets every day, and all those who voted for me. I do not take this job lightly, and it is a personal honour to represent the community in which I was born and raised, and in which I continue to live today.

Over the past few weeks many new Members have boasted about their constituencies. I have been to many of those great places, but Streatham is undeniably the best. My constituency also covers parts of Balham, Clapham Common, Tulse Hill, and my birth place, Brixton Hill. There really is no place like it for its history of activism, community and faith. We have the longest high street in Europe, and an array of independent shops that is represented by our fantastic Streatham business improvement district. We hosted the first ever supermarket in this country. We have one of the oldest train stations, although Southern railway is not much to go by now, and one of the last working windmills was on Brixton Hill. We also have the iconic Lambeth town hall.

Let me say a few words about my predecessor. In 2010 I was so encouraged that a young black man who, just like me, was born and bred in Streatham could soon be our MP, that I went out and campaigned for him. I was paired with a young woman that day, and she reminded me—I was quite sceptical about party politics at the time—that although I was angry about tuition fees and the war in Iraq, many party members and MPs were just like me and thought exactly the same thing. They were able to be members of the Labour party, and I could be too. That evening I went home, opened up my laptop and joined the Labour party, and the rest is history. I thank my predecessor, Chuka Umunna, for getting me out campaigning that day, although he may not think much of it now, and for his amazing service to the people of Streatham.

There is one Member of this House who I must mention: our shadow Home Secretary, my right hon. Friend the Member for Hackney North and Stoke Newington (Ms Abbott). I never dreamed that I would get the opportunity to work for a living legend, a trailblazer, and the first black woman to enter Parliament, and for a black woman in politics there could be no better mentor. There is also no better person to put someone off wanting to get into politics, because I have seen the abuse that she faces, which has personally affected me. I see the way that some Members of the House treat her. I love her; you don’t have to like her, but you will respect her. I understand that we are here because of her, and Members such as Lord Boateng, Bernie Grant and Keith Vaz, and I am proud to be part of the most diverse Parliament in history. Indeed, there are so many of us that people are struggling to tell us apart, and we hope they fix that really quickly.

Alongside my right hon. Friend the Member for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, my right hon. Friends the Members for Islington North (Jeremy Corbyn) and for Hayes and Harlington (John McDonnell) have been an inspiration. They stand for a principled, unfaltering stance on opposing war, cuts and racism over decades. They have consistently supported peace, Palestinian human rights and LGBT rights, and they have opposed austerity, racism and bigotry, regardless of whether that was popular at the time, and regardless of being hounded by the reactionary press, or whether something would win in Parliament. To me, they are socialist heroes. They have always been where I aim to be: on the side of the oppressed, not the oppressor, and always on the right side of history.

I am proud to be the daughter of Ghanaian migrants, and they are even prouder that myself and my hon. Friend the Member for Erith and Thamesmead (Abena Oppong-Asare) are jointly the first women of Ghanaian heritage to sit in this House. The support we have received from the Ghanaian community in the UK and globally has been immeasurable. Ghanaian Brits boast many notable names including Stormzy; June Sarpong; the editor of Vogue, Edward Enninful; and too many others to count. But as I am often reminded, the most important British-Ghanaian to ever walk this earth is of course my Mum.

I cite my heritage not just because it is important to me, but because it underpins my experience in this country, my country, and my fear as racism and other hate crimes are on the rise. Today, we are debating global Britain. There is the saying that, “If you don’t know where you’ve come from, you don’t know where you’re going.” It strikes me that as a country we cannot begin to fulfil the idea of global Britain until we first address the historic injustices of the British empire, injustices including slavery and colonialism; first, because it is the right thing to do, but also because we may soon find ourselves out in the cold if we do not.

While we spent years debating Brexit and, as my hon. Friend the Member for Putney (Fleur Anderson) said, engaging in monumental self-harm, India surpassed the UK to become the fifth-richest economy in the world: India, a former British colony, where this country presided over a bloody partition, the Amritsar massacre and the Bengal famine. Countries in Africa, such as Ghana, Kenya and Uganda, are among the fastest-growing economies in the world; countries that Britain deliberately underdeveloped, stole resources from and brutally enslaved their people. Madam Deputy Speaker, were you aware that in the mid to late 1700s, over 50 Members of this House represented slave plantations? Members of Parliament just like me enslaved people that looked just like me.

I am someone who believes firmly that the only way to tackle an issue is at its very root, and the racism that I and many other people in this country face on a daily basis has its root in those very injustices. Not only will this country, my country, not apologise—by apologise I mean properly apologise; not “expressing deep regret”—it has not once offered a form of reparations. People see reparations as handing over large sums of money, but why could we not start today with simple things like fairer trade, simple things like returning items that do not belong to us, and simple things like cancelling debts that we have paid over and over again?

I believe the reason for that is that we only apologise to our equals. We only make amends with our equals. So I have to ask: how can I be equal to every other Member in this House, when this is how this House treats people who look just like me? While billionaires and large corporates find creative ways to dodge their taxes, do you know who doesn’t? Most immigrants. They are the same immigrants who are vilified as the Government enforce their hostile environment and the 3 million EU nationals, many of whom live in my constituency—another Windrush scandal in the making.

I recently discovered that after the slave trade, this country—our country, my country—took out a loan of the equivalent of £300 billion to pay off slave owners. We only finished paying off that loan in 2015. That means that for decades the descendants of the enslaved and the colonised have been contributing to paying their oppressors. That means that members of the Windrush generation who were invited here to work paid their taxes to pay off a debt to those who brutally enslaved their ancestors. For their troubles, some lost their homes and their jobs, were separated from their families, detained, deported and dehumanised, and are now being denied the dignity of a proper civil compensation scheme.

Let us not forget the people of Grenfell Tower: 72 people dead and many more traumatised by the loss of their loved ones and the loss of their homes, a community scarred for generations. This Government failed them on their promise to rehouse them in the aftermath of the catastrophe and have failed to remove flammable cladding. They all need justice as equal citizens, and that means bringing those responsible to face the law.

I could not let my maiden speech pass without touching on the scourge of knife crime, because the area of Streatham is particularly affected. I agree that we need more policing and more community policing, but we cannot arrest our way out of this situation and we cannot seem to stop it. We need real investment in youth services and real investment in preventive measures, but most of all we need to be frank with ourselves. If you live in my area and you are a young black man who is caught or arrested with drugs, it is a very different outcome for you. But apparently if you admit to taking drugs in this House, you may find yourself a candidate in the Conservative party leadership contest and nobody seems to care or places the same level of responsibility on you. Now, I am not judging. I believe we all need to look at drug reforms, but I also believe there needs to be more equality in how people in this House are treated and the people we represent are treated.

We find ourselves in historic and unprecedented times. It is clear that we cannot carry on our old ways. Half of the wealth of the world is hoarded by the top 1%. We are more connected than ever, but fake news has ended up as an ally of the powerful. We live in a world where, across the pond, there is a leader who cages migrant children. To our shame, our Government this month voted down refugee children’s rights. This country welcomed Kindertransport children fleeing the mass murder of millions of Jewish people at the hands of the Nazis. I stand with Lord Dubs who was one of those children and who now opposes the heartless policy of the Government. I was proud to speak on Holocaust Memorial Day against the scourge of antisemitism and all forms of racism that allow fascism to thrive. I want to make it clear that with fascism rising across Europe, we must all say, “Never again” and mean it, but that charity needs to begin at home and it needs to begin in this House.

The case for being more internationalist could not be clearer. Fires are burning in the Arctic, the Amazon and Australia. In Indonesia, just like in parts of Italy and Britain, flash floods and heatwaves expose people and places to unimaginable risk. My right hon. Friend the Member for Islington North led this House to declare a climate emergency, but the Government have carried on as if it is business as usual. Brexit, coming tomorrow, looks set to weaken environmental protections, unless climate breakdown is confronted. What future the people on our planet have hangs in the balance.

This time of crisis is a test of the Government’s leadership and our duty to protect our citizens. Good leadership will create jobs, with a green new deal tackling economic insecurity and ecological crisis in one fell swoop. What leadership is it if we allow the Government to bury their heads in the sand as if the neoliberal pursuit of the profit for the 1% matters more than living within our planetary means in the interests of the 99%, citizens in constituencies like mine in Streatham? Our planet does not have time for the Government to check in with Donald Trump and the fossil fuel industry about what we should do. The next generation needs real action on the climate crisis. From Britain came the industrial revolution. It is now time for us to lead the environmental revolution.

My road to Parliament was not by the well-trodden route of power, privilege, connection or wealth. I was energised as a student activist to stop the fascist BNP and to help stop the deportation of one of my fellow students. So I am very proud to have been appointed shadow immigration Minister and continue that fight today. My path is not the statistically trodden path of a young black girl from a council estate on Brixton Hill and that needs to change. It needs all of us to make sure it does.