Chuka Umunna MP, Labour’s Shadow Business Secretary, commenting on Foreign Secretary William Hague’s attack on business leaders today following their critical remarks on the Queen’s Speech, said:

“Business leaders have told Ministers that this Government has lost the plot and urgently needs to work with them to create the conditions to foster private sector growth and to provide a more certain policy environment to give business the confidence to invest.

“Instead of listening to British business, this out of touch Foreign Secretary now suggests that our firms are not working hard enough and that is why there is no growth. The truth is that this Tory led Government’s disastrous policies have put Britain into recession when it inherited an economy that was growing and now they are seeking to dump the blame on business for their economic incompetence.

“William Hague says our businesses should ‘get on the plane, go and sell things overseas’ as if our businesses have not already been trying to do just that. His comments are typical of an out of touch Government that refuses to listen and refuses to take responsibility for its own economic policy failures.

“Business has been crying out for the Government to adopt an active industrial strategy, where government steps up and works in partnership with business instead of stepping aside and telling business to get on with it. For reasons of political ideology, the biggest roadblocks to the adoption of the active industrial strategy business has called for are the Prime Minister, the Chancellor and now the Foreign Secretary.”

London MP Chuka Umunna, the most senior UK politician of Black African heritage, has hosted the first ever House of Commons Summit designed to end child abuse resulting from witchcraft branding. Former Home Office Minister Meg Hillier said that the Home Secretary should consider using her power to refuse faith leaders who have branded children as witches from entering the UK.

Chuka Umunna’s position as Shadow Business Secretary and the only black member of the Shadow Cabinet means that he is the most senior politician in the UK who is of African origin. The London MP hosted the Summit in conjunction with AFRUCA, Africans Unite Against Child Abuse, to bring together policymakers, charities, faith leaders and community representatives in order to examine how best to curtail child abuse resulting from accusations of witchcraft or possession by evil spirits.

The Summit followed the conviction of Eric Bikubi and Magalie Bamu for the murder of Kristy Bamu on Christmas Day 2010. The Crown Prosecution Service said that Eric Bikubi inflicted ‘violence on an unimaginable scale’ and that Magalie Bamu ‘willingly subjected her 15 year old brother to extreme violence’. The teenager was found with 130 separate injuries and died from a combination of drowning and beatings to his head, chest and limbs.

The event was held in the Grand Committee Room of the House of Commons at the Palace of Westminster on the 18th April and, as well as Chuka Umunna and Meg Hillier, those speaking at the event included Tim Loughton MP, the Children’s Minister; Catherine McKinnell MP, the Shadow Children’s Minister; Keith Vaz MP, Chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee; and Modupe Debbie Ariyo OBE, known as Debbie, Founder and Director of AFRUCA.

Speaking after the event former Home Office Minister Meg Hillier MP, who represents Hackney South and Shoreditch in the House of Commons and is Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Nigeria, said: “The Home Secretary has the power to refuse entry to the UK to anyone who’s presence in the UK is not good for our country. She should consider using this when faith leaders who have branded children as witches seek to enter the UK.”

The Hackney South and Shoreditch MP, who has campaigned on safeguarding for many years, is also pressing ministers to ensure that faith leaders are vetted in the same way as other people who work with children and vulnerable adults. She said: “Safeguarding is just as important in a faith setting as in a school. Faith leaders are trusted because of their leadership in their community. Parents and carers should be able to be reassured that their trust us well placed.”

The Summit featured contributions from around 50 community leaders, policy makers and other interested groups and issues raised included the content of some Christian TV channels, safeguarding practices in Churches, and possible changes to the Law which would explicitly tackle this kind of abuse.

London MP Chuka Umunna, who hosted the Summit, said:

“Children branded as witches or being possessed by evil spirits can face some of the worst abuse and neglect imaginable. As a society, we must face up to this and stop this abuse from happening. A lot of abuse happens under the radar which makes it all the more important that we put all our energies into hunting it out and putting a stop to it.

“I am glad that so many prominent MPs attended this event – including the Children’s Minister – and that the community, policy makers and the third sector were able to come together in this way to agree a list of actions we will all take to prevent the abuse and neglect of our children and young people. The Summit was a good first step in bringing this issue to the attention of those in the corridors of power but it is only a first step – we need to ensure it is followed up with action.”

Commenting, Modupe Debbie Ariyo OBE, Founder and Director of AFRUCA, said:

“We are grateful to the MPs who attended and to Chuka Umunna for hosting this very important Summit. The huge turnout shows that AFRUCA clearly has the support of the African community in pushing for positive changes in the best interest of our children. It is totally incomprehensible that someone’s life can be ruined because someone thinks they are a witch. We will therefore continue to work to prevent children from being harmed as a result of witchcraft branding.”

Chuka also toured the Estate to find out the latest information on community safety, policing and housing issues, including recent and required repairs. Accompanying Chuka were representatives from United Residents Housing, the Resident’s Board and the local Safer Neighbourhood Team.

Dear Sir,

Streatham is the place I was born, it is where I was brought up, and where I live. It is a wonderful place and I have the great honour to represent the constituency in Parliament.

Your readers will likely be aware of the negative comments about Streatham that were broadcast on a popular TV news quiz.  I have no desire to give these comments further publicity, nor will I circulate them further by joining discussion of them on twitter or other social media sites – there is no purpose to be served by drawing further attention to them.   

The reaction the comments have received says it all: so many people, whether they live, work, or just pass through Streatham, have said loudly and proudly that anybody talking Streatham down is talking nonsense.  I have repeated this sentiment myself publicly long before I was elected – indeed it’s why I established the “Celebrating Streatham” event.

We have a great community here and a great spirit. We have hundreds of excellent businesses, charities and community groups and are known throughout our borough for our bars, cafés and restaurants amongst other things. We are known too for our charity gigs, and any national comedian who wants to hold a gig in aid of any of our superb local charities is more than welcome to do so!

The improvements to Streatham over the last ten years have been manifold, but I want them to be dwarfed by the achievements Streatham will make over the next ten. As MP I am working hard to keep Streatham great but the brilliant thing about Streatham is that I am not alone, and thousands of people throughout our community are contributing daily to the wonderful, thriving place we call home.

Yours,

Chuka Umunna MP

Member of Parliament for Streatham

covering Streatham and parts of Clapham, Balham, Tulse Hill and Brixton

Tweet #SaveOurCPCG

Streatham MP Chuka Umunna has said that London Mayor Boris Johnson must act to save the Lambeth CPCG after the organisation’s chair revealed that the number of meetings held by the group would fall from eleven per year to six.

The Lambeth Community Consultative Group (CPCG) was one of the first CPCG’s to be formed following the recommendations of Lord Scarman’s report into the 1981 Brixton Riots. The CPCG acts as a forum between the Police and communities across the whole of Lambeth Borough.

The Group has previously held monthly meetings (excepting August), which are open to contributions from anybody who wishes to speak. The sessions are designed to develop common understanding between the community and the Police around serious issues of community safety, crime and disorder in the borough. The Chair of Lambeth CPCG, Clarence Thompson MBE, has said that funding reductions will reduce the number of meetings the Group can hold per year from eleven to six.

Chuka Umunna has written to Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, asking him to look urgently into securing sufficient levels of funding so that Lambeth CPCG can continue to work towards the development and maintenance of a positive and open relationship between the communities he represents and the Police that serve those communities.

Commenting, Chuka Umunna MP said:

“Since the implementation of Lord Scarman’s recommendations the Lambeth CPCG has become an increasingly valuable community institution. It is vital that the CPCG has the resources necessary to carry out its essential functions and the news that meetings are being reduced from 11 per year to six is incredibly worrying.”

“Clarence and the whole CPCG team do a superb job and the invaluable contribution it makes to resolving issues were there for all to see particularly during last August’s unrest.”

Commenting, Clarence Thompson MBE, Chair of the Lambeth CPCG, said:

“The CPCG has been engaging with the young people in developing a rationale to enable them to desist for engaging in crime. The cuts to our funding means that the public meetings which give communities a voice to air their concerns, will be reduced from 11 to 6. I am seriously concerned that this will undermine the essential role of the CPCG in providing a clear line of communication between the Police and the community, to the benefit of public safety and public trust.”

“I agree with Chuka Umunna that the CPCG needs to be properly funded and am glad he is working to achieve this. I am pleased with the support we have had from across the community with regards to our work.”

Tweet #AcademyImposition

Streatham MP Chuka Umunna has said the government must come clean on any plans to impose academy status on schools in Lambeth after the Government revealed in answer to Parliamentary Questions that it is exploring imposing Academy Status on three Lambeth Primary schools without reference to parents, school governors or local opinion.

Mr Umunna asked the Government a series of parliamentary questions asking them to detail what discussions they have had with either Lambeth Local Authority or Lambeth primary schools about requiring a conversion of a local primary school into an academy. In answer to a question put by Mr Umunna to the Education Secretary asking whether the Department for Education was considering imposing academy status on any Lambeth school, the Minister of State for Schools, Nick Gibb, said the Government intended “to explore” imposing academy status on three Lambeth Primary Schools.

Mr Umunna requested that the Government name the three Lambeth Schools in a follow-up question but the Government has refused to do so. Mr Umunna has now submitted a Freedom of Information Request in order that local parents can be informed as to the future status of Lambeth Schools.

Commenting, Streatham MP Chuka Umunna, said:

“My primary concern is that our children should get the best education possible so they can realise their full potential. It is crucial that the voice of the school community – parents, pupils, governors and staff – is heard and accounted for when decisions are made. It is wholly unacceptable for the Education Secretary and his Whitehall mandarins to seek to impose academy status on our local schools without the consent of the community. This would also fly in the face of government rhetoric which claims Ministers want to see decision making devolved down to a local level.

“The Government’s answers to me in Parliament have not been sufficient to provide reassurance to local parents. Parents deserve to know all the facts about any proposed top-down interference in our local schools. The fact that the Government has said that three unnamed Lambeth schools might have academy status imposed on them, without reference to local parents or local opinion, is deeply worrying.

“Since the Government has refused to come clean on their plans I have sought to force them to do so by submitting a Freedom of Information request to get this information from them.”

Feel free to pop by at some point during the afternoon, and to invite friends, neighbours or anyone who you think might like to raise an issue, make a suggestion, or just have a chat. Please note if you have a personal casework issue you’d like to raise, it is best to contact the constituency office directly to set up a private surgery appointment.

Introduction

Thank you for that introduction, and thanks for inviting me to share in this fantastic occasion.

This is the last stop in my tour of different parts of the country this week – meeting the best of British business, finding out how we can help you prosper and grow.

Yesterday morning I visited the Glenmorangie whisky bottling plant in Livingston; in the afternoon I went to one of our leading pharmaceutical firms in Edinburgh, before addressing you at this glamorous gathering this evening.

It is great to be back here in Manchester. Though I grew up in my constituency in South London, I do consider Manchester to be my home away from home. I have strong ties here, I read law at the University of Manchester for 4 years and, in so doing, got stuck in to numerous curries at ridiculous times in the morning in Rusholme.

Of course, a lot has changed since then. When I started university in the mid 90s, there was no Google, no Facebook – Mark Zuckerburg was just 13 – and there was no twitter. Labour was winning elections as frequently as United were winning trophies; the Tories were changing party leaders more quickly than City changed its managers.

Fast forward to now and Google is said to be worth more than 30 times the value of Man U, Zuckerberg is about to make billions of dollars from the floatation of Facebook, millions are tweeting – including politicians who have learnt a single tweet can be a joy but also end your career ….and City might even win the league this year.

I was a student back then and now I find myself shadowing Vince Cable. Yes, he is twice my age and we do look a bit different, but the funny thing is that in his lifetime Vince has been a member of the Labour Party for longer than me….he’s just fallen in with the wrong crowd since then.

And the economic context is of course entirely different. The mid 1990s marked the start of a period of prolonged growth. Tonight, we arrive at these Business Awards having seen no growth over the last 5 quarters, unemployment soaring beyond 2.6 million and 50 businesses going under every day.

So, though we should always celebrate business success, your success in 2012 deserves even greater recognition and praise during these tough economic times, with all the uncertainties it entails.

I am aware this event would not have been possible without the support of tonight’s sponsors: Lombard, the award winning providers of asset finance to business; and, of course, Manchester City Council. And I want to pay tribute to your council leadership – your Leader, Sir Richard Leese and the Chief Executive, Sir Howard Bernstein.

I don’t want to go on for long but I want to say a little about what you are doing here in Manchester and its national significance, the long term challenges we face as a country and a bit about our future.

Active government in the North West

Here the work your Council is doing with the other local authorities in this Greater Manchester region to create a thriving business environment is fantastic. Ten authorities – all working together across party lines to promote growth in this region. At Westminster, my team and I have a constitutional duty to hold the government to account for all its actions – but where we can work together in your interests, we should do so, and that is precisely what Sir Richard and my Labour colleagues are doing in this part of the country.

This level of cooperation – moulded, tested and strengthened over a couple of decades of joint working here in Manchester – is a shining example to other city regions of the benefits of working around shared goals. Here this partnership has led to the Greater Manchester Growth Plan, authored by an impressive group of economic advisers chaired by Jim O’Neill from Goldman Sachs. If you haven’t had a chance to read it yet, I recommend that you take a moment to do so. It is full of ideas about the role that local government – working together – can play in fostering growth in the region: improving local infrastructure, housing and skills; using public money more strategically; and, making Manchester a hub for science and innovation.

Short term economic challenges

I mention the leadership being shown by local authorities in Manchester because this approach is at the core of Labour’s vision for the UK economy.

I have already referred to the immediate, short term economic problems we have – caused by the government’s comprehensive spending review which massively dented confidence, causing a huge drop in demand from October 2010. It is for this reason that, like the Federation of Small Businesses, we have been arguing for all micro businesses taking on extra employees to be given a national insurance break. It why, like the CBI, we have argued for infrastructure investment to be brought forward in our plan for jobs and growth – to kick start the recovery and get people back into work, which is the surest way to reduce public sector borrowing.

But we have bigger long term challenges too which require the modernisation and reform of our economy. We have seen a stagnation in average wages despite productivity increases; there are imbalances between and within regions; we have become over reliant on one sector – financial services – and need to grow others as a percentage of GDP. Let me be clear:

I am proud that we have a financial services sector which is leading the world, serving the global economy, and behind much of our success in other key business services. But what we need, and what you tell me you want is a financial services sector that better serves you and the domestic real economy. That’s why we are looking very seriously at plans for a British Investment Bank; that’s why we have been looking at how we can learn from what the US Small Business Administration is doing in that country to increase access to finance for businesses in this one.

In short – what we need is a new economy, fit for purpose, fit for our times, fit for the future. That has to be our goal.

Active government nationally working with business

We disagree on the Government’s core economic strategy. But we do agree that, to the extent growth returns, it must be private sector driven. So we are asking a lot from you – the country is asking a lot from you in difficult circumstances. In meeting this task, I am firmly of the view that you deserve nothing other than government’s full support. Not easy warm words. Not a government that steps back, but a government that steps up.

What I am talking about is a new partnership between productive business and active government: productive business creating long term, sustainable value; active government using every tool that it has in a consistent and coordinated way, offering you the certainty to invest with confidence. Some might call this an active industrial strategy for 2012 and beyond – I am intensely relaxed with this description.

We started to develop an active government approach under Peter Mandelson towards the end of our time in government. People sometimes forget that an additional 1.1 million new businesses were created during our time in office and that by the time we left, the World Bank ranked the UK the best country in Europe for “ease of doing business”, and fourth best in the world, ahead of the U.S.

However, clearly we did not get everything right – at the 2010 General Election it was clear to me that we had lost your trust having worked so hard to gain it following Tony Blair’s election as our leader and we must have the humility to say so. I am absolutely determined that we regain your trust.

I am proud to be able to say that we have a Shadow Business Team in the House of Commons entirely composed of people who have either set up and run their own businesses, or who have worked for businesses. And my goal in leading Labour’s business team is this: that you see within the Labour Party the same ambition for the success of your businesses as you have; that you see Labour, again, as the champion of productive business, the natural party of the entrepreneur and the innovator. The party with the best ideas and the most realistic plans for the UK economy, trusted to deliver rising and shared prosperity. No party has a monopoly on this but we should aspire to be the best – a strong voice for you in Opposition and hopefully in Government. To do this we must listen to you – as I have done today with the businesses I had the pleasure of meeting earlier at EV, the fund management company on King Street.

Paying our way in the world – the long term global challenge

Why? Because the prize is big. Some people look at the rise of emerging economies – like China, India and Brazil – with trepidation. They fear that growing competition in global markets will mean our best days are behind us. I could not disagree more – having seen the dynamism, creativity and drive in British business today, I say to the doom merchants: don’t tell me our businesses don’t have the ability to compete and be the best in the world.

In the next two decades, the global middle class will triple in size to 5 billion. That’s a whole lot of demand we should be preparing our economy and our businesses to meet. Investing, training, innovating. And I know that working with you we can do this.

You are the ones that will lead our rise. You have the ideas. You have shown that you are up to the challenge. In turn, you need a government that will take the strategic action needed to make sure that the whole economy matches up to your success. That is our commitment to you. Just look at what Sir Richard and colleagues are doing here locally and that gives you a flavour of the approach we would adopt if we were in power nationally.

Conclusion

Whether you are up for an award this evening, or will be trying harder to win one next year; whether you are the best newcomer, the best green company, the best creative company, the best law firm or the best social enterprise – you are our hope, and you are our future. I congratulate you on your success this evening, and I wish you the best of luck and continued success in the future.

Thank you for listening.

Mr Umunna met with the The Independent Riots Communities and Victims Panel in October, along with fellow Lambeth MPs Tessa Jowell and Kate Hoey, in order to make certain that the Panels final report would take full account of what his constituents had been telling him of their experience before, during and after the riots.

The Streatham constituency is one of the youngest constituencies in the country and suffers from high rates of unemployment. Mr Umunna said that the Panel’s view that many young people do not have a stake in society reflects what his constituents tell him on a weekly basis. Mr Umunna said that in light of this report that it ‘will simply not be acceptable for the Government to impose 20% cuts to police funding.

Commenting, Streatham MP Chuka Umunna said:

“There is no excuse for what happened and ultimately responsibility lies with those who carried out criminal acts in my constituency and elsewhere last August but if we do not want a repeat of this behavior we must take note of the report recommendations and understand why it occurred.

“I have always argued we cannot ignore the context in which these events happened – undoubtedly a society which has increasingly become composed of individuals who define themselves by what they have as opposed to who they are was a contributing factor which we all should take responsibility for and reflect on.  

“My constituency is one of the youngest in the country and the lack of opportunities many young people feel and the sense that they do not have a stake in society accords with what many of my constituents tell me week after week.  Government needs to be doing far more in deprived areas like mine where 20 people are chasing every job at present.  

“One thing is clear – it would be totally wrong in light of this report and what occurred to cut police numbers or impose 20% cuts to police funding.  This will simply not be acceptable to people in Streatham, Brixton, Clapham and Tulse Hill.”