Labour’s Andy Slaughter stands against evicting riot families


by Sunny Hundal    
6:16 pm - August 26th 2011

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Labour MP Andy Slaughter has released this statement on the plan by some local councils to evict entire families if one person was caught looting:

Iain Duncan Smith is on the lookout for evil people who, bereft of moral values, are hiding in dark corners of society. I doubt he will find any but it is an excuse to evict families from secure homes and to deduct benefits from poor families.

How punishing a household for the actions of an individual is either equitable or rational, I don’t know, but it has been repeated by politicians seeking soundbites and at a loss for real answers from Nick Clegg to Tory councillors in H&F.

Promising to evict families from council homes if a member of the family is convicted of an offence implies council tenants are more prone to criminal behaviour and that they should have a greater punishment than others committing similar crimes.

Of course, the Council has no power to evict in most cases, that is a matter for the courts and this is gesture politics, but if families are evicted and on the streets how is that going to aid social cohesion?

Indeed!
Well done on Andy Slaughter for making this case. His full article is here.

And why are so many others from Labour so shamefully silent?

Earlier, we published research conducted by the previous government backing up Slaughter’s point – evicting ‘problem families’ worsens crime and social cohesion in a local area.

There is no good excuse for any local authority, let alone a Labour one, to evict entire families out of social housing just because one person was caught looting. It is not only highly disproportionate but also counter-productive.

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About the author
Sunny Hundal is editor of LC. Also: on Twitter, at Pickled Politics and Guardian CIF.
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Reader comments


1. Mr Grunt

Why were these Evil Politicians not demanding that any MP’s or Politicians that fiddled their expenses (No Matter What Amount) be banned from Parliament or public office for life.

One rule, law for them and another for the lower classes.

2. Simon

I agree with Slaughter.

3. Charlieman

Credit to Sunny for highlighting Andy Slaughter’s honourable statement.

But what is the flurry of Twitters about? If you have something pertinent to say, please speak out. If you think that Andy Slaughter makes a decent point, talk about it.

When you RETWEET without adding a comment, it is just a BROADCAST, SHOUTING at people without thought. The INTERNET filters a lot of this out but if you must TWEET, add something to the debate, please.

4. Cylux

@3 It’s people linking or broadcasting this post to their friends etc on twitter, potentially increasing the amount who read the post and who might then also comment on it. It also stuffs any blog posts that reference this post in the list as well.
While they may actually be having a discussion on twitter about the content of the post, those tweets won’t show up in the reactions list due to lack of link.

5. pagar

I disagree with the principle of social housing but evicting tenants for being convicted of criminal offences is quite wrong. Crime and punishment should be dealt with by the courts, not by local government apparatchiks egged on at Cameron’s whim.

As far as I’m aware, this is the first use of collective punishment since Stalin sent the families of opponents to Siberia.

Says it all really.

6. Peter

People on social housing have no value of worth of said housing and expect it forever just like benefits, i think if you break laws you lose privileges starting with houses.

7. Chaise Guevara

@ 5 Pagar

“As far as I’m aware, this is the first use of collective punishment since Stalin sent the families of opponents to Siberia.”

Kettling.

8. Planeshift

“As far as I’m aware, this is the first use of collective punishment since Stalin sent the families of opponents to Siberia.”

Of course, when Stalin died there were no oppressive governments left. Collective punishment wasn’t used anywhere. Sadly this 50 year utopia hasn’t lasted.

9. Chaise Guevara

And yes, good statement by Slaughter. It’s nice to see that some politicians are actually thinking about this rationally and humanely.

As Pagar points out, this is collective punishment, and collective punishment is illiberal and ridiculous. The fact that it appears to be being used based on the alleged actions of people who haven’t even been convicted, and by local authorities rather than judicial courts, is just icing on the cake.

If you’re a teenager from a poor family with a thief for a brother or sister, the punishment for that is apparently being made homeless. What a wonderful country we live in.

10. buddyhell

Excellent. Though I suspect Tory-run Hammersmith & Fulham Council see things differently.

On the council website, it says

“Hammersmith & Fulham (H&F) Council has said it will seek to evict any council tenant who is proved guilty of being involved in criminal acts following the riots in London.

H&F Council’s Cabinet Member for Housing, Cllr Andrew Johnson, has joined colleagues in condemning the images of destruction and looting from across the capital and vowed that any H&F tenant that is found to be involved will be ‘robustly pursued’”

http://www.lbhf.gov.uk/Directory/News/Eviction_threat_for_rioting_council_tenants.asp

But then, LBHF want to bulldoze council estates and replace them with ‘mixed’ housing.

11. buddyhell

@6

“People on social housing have no value of worth of said housing and expect it forever just like benefits, i think if you break laws you lose privileges starting with houses”

Said like a true class bigot.

Meanwhile those people arrested but who are living in £1m properties in Orpington can stay where they are. This is an attack on the poor and, more importantly, social housing tenants. Council housing is not a “benefit” and nor is it “subsidised”.

12. Robert

Forgive me was it not Caroline Flint who wanted to kick out the work less after two years, so hard working Immigrants could have a home, seems to me like Labour now saying oh look your attacking our working class, or non working class.

But I was informed by Ms Flint the same should happen to the sick and the disabled if they refused to take work after two years.

I think it’s the throwing stones in that dam green house again.

13. Robert

well if you take council houses off people, I hope mortgages would be canceled them.

14. ex-Labour voter

I agree with this.

The riots are being used as an excuse to attack council housing and this is a very obvious way to do it.

Would we ban somebody from school if he has a relative who is a rioter?

The whole thing disgusts me. However, I rather doubt that Slaughter would be so much against it if it was the Labour Party doing it.

Perhaps a rioter would be allowed to ‘flip’ his house? That isn’t my main place of residence.

15. Chaise Guevara

@ 6 Peter

“People on social housing have no value of worth of said housing and expect it forever just like benefits, i think if you break laws you lose privileges starting with houses.”

Next time, try reading the article before posting. You’ll find it makes you less likely to sound like an idiot, although I doubt anything would stop you sounding like a bigot. Kthxbye.

16. Robert

Love it…….

17. buddyhell

@12

Were you addressing me? It wasn’t clear.

You said,
“Forgive me was it not Caroline Flint who wanted to kick out the work less after two years, so hard working Immigrants could have a home, seems to me like Labour now saying oh look your attacking our working class, or non working class”

It sounds like you’ve been reading too much EDL propaganda. Furthermore, Nu Labour didn’t act on Flint’s ideas. Whereas, the Tories have been looking for any excuse to end council housing.

18. Chaise Guevara

@ 14

“The whole thing disgusts me. However, I rather doubt that Slaughter would be so much against it if it was the Labour Party doing it. ”

He’d probably be just as much against it, but quieter about it.

To be honest, I don’t see much point in attacking a politician based on what you think they might have done had their party been in power, considering that you do actually agree with what he’s saying. Evicting people for committing petty crimes isn’t great, and evicting their innocent family members is outrageous; if we agree with that, is there any need for party-political sniping in this context?

19. Mr Grunt

David Cameron’s dislike for the lower classes now makes an entire family guilty by association !

David Cameron and his Radicalized Government will not be happy untill it see’s all the lower classes and unemployed on the streets begging or imprisoned.

Soon it will be compulsory to do the Nazi Salute when you see David Cameron or any other Tory Politician/MP.

This is not just the Nasty Party it is the Evil Party.

20. Chaise Guevara

@ 19

“Soon it will be compulsory to do the Nazi Salute when you see David Cameron or any other Tory Politician/MP”

I am willing to bet almost any amount of money that this isn’t true.

21. Mr Grunt

Chaise Guevara @ 20

I did not say that it was true or that they were already doing it. I was being somewhat facetious/sarcastic.

However, it is known that those in High Society do have a fond habbit of dressing up as and imitating the late Adolf Hitler. Always a true word said in jest !

22. Roger Mexico

I’d be more impressed by Slaughter’s bravery if also attacked the Labour councils such as Manchester that were threatening evictions for even more innocuous crimes. Still at least he didn’t wait to make his announcement until after the latest poll showed that the public agreed with him (it just took LibCon ten days to notice his piece). Last Sunday’s YouGov:

http://today.yougov.co.uk/sites/today.yougov.co.uk/files/yg-archives-pol-st-results-19-210811.pdf
(page 6)

had the voters opposing the measure of Evicting families in council houses whose children, living with them, were involved in rioting or looting 42% to 34%. This is part of a gradual return to sanity after the “OMG riots – near where media people live!!” frenzy.

Any such councils are relying on vague behaviour clauses in the tenants contracts. But such things are meant to cover tenant’s behaviour as tenants. And presumably if you can evict a family for such a small public offence, equity means you’ll be obliged to chuck people on the street for a parking ticket. If this ever gets to Courts, these Councils are will be told to stop wasting everyone’s time. Of course the usual suspects will use this to denounce the Human Rights Act for er giving rights to humans.

Long term it won’t even work as propaganda Lots of parents will be thinking of times when their children were uncontrollable or even able to do anti-social things just to annoy their parents. Well they certainly can now. Empathy will make this sort of thing unpopular. And people will realise that, if parents throw their unruly children out on the street to keep their tenancies, that’s sure to help the situation a lot.

Funny how gesture politics works nowadays.

23. Roger Mexico

Oops, sorry about the formatting fail – links should still work though.

Mr Grunt, I think that there’s someone you really ought to meet called Sally.

24. XXX

@ 21:

“However, it is known that those in High Society do have a fond habbit of dressing up as and imitating the late Adolf Hitler.”

Really? OK then, name five people who have done so.

25. Mr Grunt

Two that spring to mind straight away are : Mike Gardner Conservative. Council Leader for Harrogate. He appeared very excited when doing the Nazi Salute.

Prince Harry dressed as Adolf Hitler wearing a Swastika Armband.

These two are a start but I will have to get back to you on the others.

26. Chaise Guevara

@ 21 Mr Grunt

“I did not say that it was true or that they were already doing it. I was being somewhat facetious/sarcastic.”

Okay, fair enough. But Cameron & co are not Nazis. They’re not remotely like Nazis. They’re arrogant, callous bastards, but they ain’t Hitler.

27. Chaise Guevara

@ 22

“I think that there’s someone you really ought to meet called Sally.”

Heh.

28. Jim

I think we need to congratulate Andy Slaughter on this and I wish that other politicians in general and those on the soft/firm Left in particular would take note. Just because something excites the baying mob does NOT make it right. Just because other politicians dance for the idiotic knee jerking sociopaths, does not mean you have to as well.

We live in an age were being a fuckwit is considered an asset and ‘attempting to analyse a problem’ is seen as a weakness, I am glad that someone, anyone, in the Labour Party can stand up and say something that hasn’t been focussed grouped into being.

Andy Slaughter has said something in the political sphere that may not win him many admirers among mainstream commentators, but he has said something that required to be said.

29. Mark

This article gives the impression that it is just Conservative councils (such as Hammersmith and Fulham) that are proposing to evicts people who have rioted and their families.

The articles praises a single MP who has spoken out on this issue and poses the question:

“And why are so many others from Labour so shamefully silent?”

I think the more fundamental question is why both Labour run Greenwich and Southwark are it would seem following the same policy as Hammersmith and Fulham.

Why the lack of attention and criticism of these councils?

http://www.southwark.gov.uk/news/article/489/southwark_sends_warning_letters_to_tenants_about_rioting_charges

http://www.greenwich.co.uk/magazine/05773-council-evict-tenants-riots/

P.S. Andy Slaughter has a great record in criticising his own Conservative Council on a range of issues – from its council newspaper to their plans to evict families over rioting. It seems that he just can’t bring himself to comment on Labour councils implementing exactly the same policies.


Reactions: Twitter, blogs
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