Christmas Adjournment

Jeremy Corbyn Excerpts

Thursday 18th December 2014 Commons Chamber

[Jeremy Corbyn (Islington North) (Lab)]

I enjoy the Christmas Adjournment debate because it gives us a chance to raise diverse subjects that are of concern to us. I want to raise two subjects that might look very different but in fact have a link from the national to the international. In questions to the Leader of the House today, and earlier this week in questions concerning Iraq, I asked why Britain had just announced that it was going to build a new military base in Bahrain. I have also just tabled an early-day motion on the subject. It will be the first new base to be built anywhere in the world by Britain for a very long time. It is not just an extension of the existing naval facilities; it is a new base. The details are slowly beginning to emerge, and it appears that Bahrain is buying a British flag to go on the base and is indeed paying for quite a lot of it.

Following the announcement, the British ambassador to Bahrain spoke at a business meeting last week at which he assured the business men—I should imagine that they were indeed all men—that Britain was aware of the improving human rights situation and democratic processes in Bahrain, and that it was therefore an act of choice for Britain to build the new military base there. Yesterday, a press conference was held in the House of Lords. It was excellently chaired by Lord Avebury of the parliamentary human rights group. It was attended by a considerable number of people who had been exiled from Bahrain. Some were political exiles, others had relatives in prison there. A number of lawyers were also present, and they explained exactly what the prison conditions were like.

The assertion that human rights in Bahrain are somehow improving is bizarre beyond belief. If anyone doubts that, I would refer them to an excellent article in The Guardian on 20 October by Maryam al-Khawaja, in which she describes how her family have been imprisoned in Bahrain and how she has tried to get them out. They are in prison because they had been protesting about the lack of democratic rights in Bahrain, the systematic discrimination against the opposition there and the interference in Bahraini affairs by Saudi Arabia at the invitation of the Bahraini Government.

It is incumbent on our Government at the very least to come to the House and make a statement telling us why the base is being built, from where they are getting their information that human rights in Bahrain are improving when clearly they are not, and why they think that our approving of the regime—from the Formula 1 race to this—is somehow going to improve the human rights situation there.

In a telling section of her article, Maryam said the thing that would have the greatest influence on improving human rights in Bahrain would be the influence of the British and United States Governments, if they chose to exercise it. They have chosen not to exercise it, however; they have chosen to do the exact opposite because that fits their geopolitical view of the world.

We are, of course, also a major arms supplier to Bahrain. We have even sent anti-personnel equipment to Bahrain that has been used to suppress demonstrations and used against demonstrators. It does not do much for the image of the United Kingdom when people are being oppressed and beaten with equipment that has been supplied by this country, assisting the police in oppressing human rights and demonstrators.

Behind all that lies the huge influence of Saudi Arabia, which went into Bahrain with military force in order to support the Government there. The human rights record of Saudi Arabia is beyond appalling—there are public executions and very few rights for women—yet it remains a massive arms export market for British products. That is why, when we discussed earlier the anti-corruption plan, I specifically raised the running sore of the way in which the previous Prime Minister, Tony Blair, suspended the Serious Fraud Office investigation into the corruption surrounding the al-Yamamah arms contract, which was worth £2 billion in sales to Saudi Arabia.

We talk about corruption around the world, and about human rights around the world. It is true that we cannot change everything, and that we have limited powers, but we can send signals. The signal sent by opening a base in a country that systematically abuses human rights and by selling arms to a Government who we know abuse human rights is absolutely the wrong one. We could do something rather different and rather better. I hope that when we come back in the new year we will have the opportunity to scrutinise the Government’s decision on the base and the associated issue of the arms trade. Of course, it is part of the strategy that our Government adopt internationally, but I would have thought that the experience of the wars in Afghanistan and in Iraq—the cost in human life, both of the Iraqi and Afghan people, and of British and American soldiers, and the damage to our own civil liberties and standing in the world—would lead us to think a little more carefully about spending such sums on a military presence around the world. We could be using that money so much better.

The second part of what I want to say relates to how Government money is spent. The Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, the hon. Member for Keighley (Kris Hopkins) has just announced the local government spending settlement, and he kept saying, in answer to many questions, that the way forward for each local authority was to grow its business base to grow its income. That is fine, and I am sure every local authority would like to do that, but the reality is that more than half of all local government expenditure comes from central Government grant. That is not likely to change in a big hurry, unless there is a massive change in the whole taxation system in this country, and I do not see anybody introducing that in the near future. Local government is dependent on central Government grant every year. It comes in many forms—direct grant, special grants, special services and so on—but in essence local government is dependent on that.

Under this Government there has been a huge cut in the local government grant, which has affected most local authorities, but it is not a universal cut. The great cities of Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool, and all the London boroughs, have had massive, disproportionate cuts, almost directly related to the level of need and poverty that the people of those boroughs experience. By the end of the financial year 2015-16, Islington, my borough, will have had half of its money cut under this Government, yet it faces the same level of demand—nay, it faces an increased level of demand and need, because the borough has a bigger population. Some 40% of our children live in a degree of poverty. There are huge needs and there is a huge wish by the local authority to be able to meet those needs and the adult social care needs, but it will not have the wherewithal to do it. I appeal to the Government to carry out an audit on levels of poverty in this country and to start to think about how we allocate expenditure based on the crying needs of many people, particularly children growing up in inner-city areas.

Like all of London, my area suffers a housing crisis. The local authority is doing its best to build council housing, either directly or in partnership with housing associations, and to ensure that it does not go down the road of the Government’s policy of charging 80% of market rent for social housing but remains with the original affordable formula of local authority rents. However, the council is not going to be able to solve the housing crisis very quickly, and the issue we face is in the private rented sector, which comprises about a third of my constituency housing.

Despite everything the Government say, rent levels are increasing fast. The security of tenure is limited—it is usually six months but sometimes a year in an assured shorthold tenancy. There is little security at the end of those six months and no security if the person has had the temerity to complain to the environmental health service about the conditions they are in. The rent levels are so high that they are way beyond the level of the benefit cap, which, sadly, Parliament voted through, and that means that when it goes beyond the ability of families to pay the rent, they will be forced to move away from the borough. The families want to remain in the borough and their children want to remain in local schools, so many children are having horrendous long journeys every day in the hope that they will be able to get back into the borough and get a council house in the future. The situation is cruel, disruptive and damaging to the community. The lack of regulation in the private rented sector is enabling speculative private landlords to make vast amounts of money. This Parliament is unlikely to bring in any kind of regulation of the private rented sector; it will be a job for the next Parliament.

The proportion of private rented homes is very high in my constituency and in a number of other areas in London, as it is in one or two big cities, but nationally it is going up very fast. By the end of the next Parliament, more than a quarter of the people in the UK will be living in the private rented sector. It is unbelievable that in the next Parliament there will not be regulation of the private rented sector to give longer, more secure tenancies, rights for tenants and, above all, control of rents, so that we bring an end to excessive rents and the evictions that follow.

I wish everyone a very happy Christmas, but I also think of the misery of children being homeless, unsure of their future and living in very poor conditions. It is unnecessary in the fourth richest country in the world that this degree of insecurity and poverty exists. We can and should do something about it.

--- Later in debate ---

[John McDonnell (Hayes and Harlington) (Lab)]

I want to raise the case of Shaker Aamer and make a plea for Government action to secure his release from Guantanamo Bay. Shaker is the last British resident of Guantanamo.

The story of Shaker is simple. He was born in December 1968 in Medina in Saudi Arabia. He left home aged 17, lived in America for a year and travelled to many countries before making his home in the United Kingdom. In 1996, he was granted the legal right to remain in the UK and worked as a translator for a firm of solicitors. His application for British citizenship was in progress when Shaker, his wife and young family decided to travel to Afghanistan to work on charitable projects. Notably, he was supporting a girls school and digging wells. He arrived in June 2001 to join his friend Moazzam Begg and to share a house in Kabul.

After 9/11, in October 2001, the US and the UK started bombing Afghanistan and Shaker sent his family on to safety. As he tried to follow them, he was betrayed by Afghani villagers to the Northern Alliance. He was tortured and then sold for a bounty of $5,000 to the US. He was taken to the “dark” prison in Kabul, where he suffered appalling torture and was transferred to Bagram and Kandahar for further abuse. Shaker states that he was subjected to cruel torture and coercive interrogation, and MI5 and MI6 agents were present. In February 2002 he was among the first detainees to be transported to Guantanamo, in the orange suits, the chains, the ear muffs, the shackles and the blindfolds. There he continued to suffer acts of cruelty, torture and deprivation.

Shaker was among the prisoners who protested against the harsh conditions and he soon became a respected spokesperson for the other detainees. Following his role in a major hunger strike in June and July 2005, he organised a prisoners council. All the prisoners’ requests were denied, and to silence him Shaker was put into solitary confinement for five years. Articles 5 and 9 of the universal declaration of human rights state:

“No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”

and

“No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile”,

yet Shaker’s lawyer in the US, Brent Mickum, stated:

“Shaker is still being tortured down there. Shaker has been jailed as long as anyone, undergoing regular torture from beating to food and sleep deprivation. There isn’t a shred of evidence against him.”

Shaker has now been held without charge for over a decade. President Obama promised to close Guantanamo by January 2010 and to restore the US to the rule of law. However, Guantanamo still remains open, with the remaining detainees losing hope of an end to their ordeal, in which all their human rights have been denied. Shaker Aamer was cleared for release by the Bush Administration in 2007. In January 2010, the Obama taskforce review reaffirmed his status. In August 2007, the UK Government recognised Shaker’s right to return as a long-term resident and requested his release to the UK. This request was strenuously repeated on subsequent occasions. In July 2010, the Prime Minister stated that the coalition Government would continue to request his release.

Shaker’s family live in Battersea and they are British citizens. They were represented formerly by Martin Linton and now by the current Member of Parliament for Battersea, both of whom have worked assiduously to secure his release. All he is asking for is to return to his family to live with his four young children back home in London. It is beyond belief, frankly, that he is still detained in Guantanamo, having been cleared twice. It is extremely hard for his family and friends to bear. He has done no wrong but has been greatly wronged by the shameful action of the US Government, unfortunately with some collusion originally by the UK Government. He has suffered cruel and inhuman treatment, including many years incarcerated in solitary confinement in a cell of 6 feet by 8 feet. Shaker’s mental and physical health is a cause of great concern. Following recent visits from his lawyers, it was reported that he is “gradually dying in Guantanamo” from his many medical problems and from the years of abuse.

I ask the Prime Minister to pick up the telephone again to Washington to ask that Shaker be released. He is innocent, he has been cleared twice, and he should be returned home.

[Jeremy Corbyn]

I was happy to be with my hon. Friend yesterday delivering a letter about this to Downing street. I am sure he agrees that if President Obama can, correctly, release the remaining members of the Miami five and show a rapprochement with Cuba, he could release somebody who is in prison in Cuba whom he has the power to release, and do it quickly.