Blacklisting

Debate between Glenda Jackson and Natascha Engel

Wednesday 16th October 2013 Westminster Hall

[Glenda Jackson]

I strongly concur. The stain of being blacklisted and accused of being in some way not committed, whether to the job, the company or the venture, can even spread to members of an individual’s family. I have heard stories of small children being called names by their contemporaries, because their mother or father had been deemed to be working against the industry or profession.

I endorse what my hon. Friend said, but we should now be pushing, most markedly, for the Government to institute a full inquiry into such practices, as previously requested. We thought that we were safe and that blacklisting was illegal—it is there in an Act of Parliament—but now, given reports in this country’s major newspapers and hon. Members’ questions and early-day motions, the problem clearly needs to be re-examined.

[Natascha Engel (North East Derbyshire) (Lab)]

On that important point of having an inquiry, one of the most terrible and serious things about blacklisting is that people do not know whether they are on a blacklist. Without an inquiry, which has been called for by unions such as UCATT and the GMB, some people will never know that they are on a blacklist. That is why I support my hon. Friend’s call. I would love it if she could develop that point a little more.

[Glenda Jackson]

My hon. Friend has developed the point very well indeed—she needs no help from me. As she so rightly says, and going back to my analogy with an infectious disease, people might not even know that they are suffering from such a disease. Only when we have a thoroughgoing inquiry, with all the evidence, and when the symptoms are brought into what we are told is the only effective disinfectant, sunlight—the light of day—can we begin to establish whether the work that has taken place in the past, on ensuring health and safety at work, for example, has gone astray.