Blacklisting

Kelvin Hopkins Excerpts

Wednesday 16th October 2013 Westminster Hall

[Glenda Jackson]

Being partly Welsh, I always find it easy to commend the Welsh on practically anything. That example should be taken on board by other authorities to ensure that the best of all possible disinfectants—sunlight—is brought to bear on this egregious illegality. Let us not forget what we are talking about. Blacklisting is illegal.

[Kelvin Hopkins (Luton North) (Lab)]

My hon. Friend is making an excellent and powerful speech. On an earlier point about McCarthyism, Sam Wanamaker was a victim. He came to Britain, and founded the Globe theatre and so on. It is to this country’s credit that we would not tolerate McCarthyism and we gave employment to people who were blacklisted in their own country. He could have made an enormous contribution to America, but fortunately he came to us.

[Glenda Jackson]

I entirely agree with what my hon. Friend said. Sam Wanamaker worked extremely hard and was absolutely fundamental in ensuring that we now have one of the most critically and dramatically acclaimed theatres in the world—the Globe. He was essential in creating for a whole generation that had not thought it would find anything interesting in Shakespeare the extraordinary illumination of what it is to be a human being that only Shakespeare and his plays bring to bear.

I agree entirely with my hon. Friend and pay tribute to what Sam Wanamaker did, but in no way was there equal treatment. America was denied what Sam could have done. He was not alone in being blacklisted. Wider society suffered desperately because of fear during the McCarthy era, when entirely innocent people, as has been the case in this country, were victimised because others were afraid to speak out against what was happening. As we all know, it was only when Senator McCarthy took the fatal final step of trying to bring down the army that the President of the day stepped in and said in no small way, “This has to stop.”

The damage was fundamental and we do not want that infectious disease to take root again in this country. We would delude ourselves if we thought it had not existed here. We would not have had to fight so hard to change the employment Bill if that had not been the case. Blacklisting must never, ever be allowed to flourish again in this country. I pay tribute to those in the Chamber today, those on the broader parliamentary estate, the trade unions and those employees—or, rather, those unemployed people—who were not prepared to stand idly by, but were prepared to take the brickbats, insults and allegations that it was all fantasy, and who fought their corner.

I am on the record as saying that if an hon. Member cannot say what they want to say in 10 minutes, they should not stand up, so I will now throw the floor open to eager colleagues.

--- Later in debate ---

[Stephen McPartland]

I often agree with the hon. Gentleman, but I reserve judgment on a public inquiry. We have had the result of the Leveson inquiry and no one is sure what the outcome is, and I am keen to get justice for the 3,213 individuals on the blacklist.

[Kelvin Hopkins]

I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on his speech. I am pleased to be working with him on the GMB campaign. He mentioned the possibility of compensation and apologies. Does he agree that what we really want is those people to be back working in the industry?

[Stephen McPartland]

I completely agree, and that is why it is important that the Information Commissioner contacts the 2,500 people who do not know that they are blacklisted to make them aware of that, so that they can get on with their lives. At the moment, those 2,500 people cannot get a job and do not know why. I do not want to stray too far into that area, so I will talk about the campaign.

We know that 44 companies are involved, but they are not all involved in the court case. The hon. Member for Luton North and I, supported by the GMB, will publish a website and write to the chief executives of construction companies asking them to come clean. We will publish the letters and the replies, and will then contact the larger shareholders to identify whether they believe that it is ethical to invest in those companies. The campaign will be long-running and is designed to provide justice for people who are currently blacklisted.

I genuinely believe that blacklisting is not about politics, or about one party or another. It is completely wrong; it is a disease; and it should be excluded. I know some Labour Members question it, but at the moment, there is cross-party consensus.