Press Releases

Michael Meacher urges Left to unite behind John McDonnell as candidate for Labour leadership

Michael Meacher has stood down in favour of John McDonnell in the contest for the Labour leadership.

Meacher and McDonnell met today in a bid to ensure there will be a challenge to Gordon Brown. After discussions it was decided that McDonnell had the greater number of nominations.

Meacher will stand down and give his support to McDonnell and is urging all his supporters to get behind the sole left candidate.

Meacher said:

“The left is standing on a clear platform in this leadership election. We must tackle the growing inequality between rich and poor; we need a major programme of building social housing; we must deal with poverty in retirement; we need an independent foreign policy; we should reverse privatisation in public services; and we have to restore British democracy and end the presidential style of government. Most importantly we simply have to tackle the single greatest threat facing mankind – climate change. That’s the agreed position for the left, it’s what John and I have been campaigning on for months and it’s the platform on which we stand united.

“John McDonnell has won more of the nominations. I am therefore happy to stand down on his behalf and I will be strongly urging my supporters to back the united left candidate.

“The really good news is that together the numbers of nominations are sufficient to get a candidate onto the ballot paper.

“John and I have both said there should be a debate and a contest, not a coronation. That is what the party and the public want and I encourage as many members of the Parliamentary Labour Party as possible to get behind John to ensure this happens.”

Leadership challenge

As agreed, the campaign teams for Michael Meacher and John McDonnell have met to assess the level of support for each candidate. The outcome is that the issue is too close to call at this moment and a number of clarifications need to be made.

The good news for the Labour Party is that there is clearly sufficient support to ensure that a leadership candidate will come forward from the centre-left.

The campaign teams will reconvene on Monday to clarify which candidate goes forward.

Today’s press conference, scheduled for 4pm, is cancelled.

Vivienne Westwood puts Meacher in fashion

Celebrated fashion icon Dame Vivienne Westwood has today announced her support for Labour leadership candidate Michael Meacher.

The clothes designer feels that the Labour Party needs to be invigorated by a leader with principles and that is why she is supporting Meacher.

Westwood said: “I want honest politicians who care about making the world a better place and not just about staying in power for what? – Well, Power! I believe Michael could take the Labour Party in a new and fresh direction – that is desperately needed.”

Westwood and Meacher find common ground in believing it is vital to re-engage people with politics after ten years of spin. Dame Vivienne Westwood said: “This Government has not listened to people”. Meacher said: “Policy has given way to personality. Labour has lost 4.5 million votes since 1997, and the electorate feels so alienated from politics. I’m running for Labour leader to enable a real and proper debate on the future of the party and the country.”

Like Meacher, Westwood strongly opposes the renewal of Trident and was outraged at the way the public consultation was handled. Michael Meacher said: “There is a strong case for a proper consultation of the electorate before such a momentous decision which will cost taxpayers some £75 billion. I would reopen the whole debate and hold a fresh vote in the House of Commons.”

Vivienne Westwood is also in agreement with the former environment minister’s views on climate survival. She said: “I greatly care that we are heading towards ecological disaster”.

Meacher: voters' warning to Labour brings opportunity for radical change

Commenting on the local election results, Labour leadership candidate Michael Meacher said:

“The election results, though not as bad as predicted, are a warning to Labour. We must take the hint from voters. Labour can still win the next general election, but there is an indisputable need to change direction.

“We now have the opportunity to revive the Party around a new, radical programme that can once again engage people. The first step is to have a genuine, open leadership contest – a real debate within Labour for the first time since 1994.

“What’s so unfair about the local results is the price that is paid by so many good councillors and members of the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly, who have lost their seats through no fault of their own. When the political tide turns, they are always the first victims.”

Meacher sounds May Day call for workers’ rights

British workers have fewer protections than in most areas of Europe, according to Labour leadership candidate Michael Meacher.

To mark International Workers Day, Meacher has today (1 May) outlined his package of measures to secure a fair deal for Britain’s workers.

Heading the package is plan to give trade unions control over their members’ pension funds, deciding how money is invested. The national minimum wage would be increased to a living wage of £7 an hour. Trade union recognition rights would be extended to the 6 million employees who work in companies with 20 or fewer employees, and workers – including temporary staff – would have employment rights from day one of their job. The corporate manslaughter bill would finally be enacted in law with custodial penalties where gross managerial negligence is proven.

Meacher said: “British workers have fewer protections than in most areas of Europe. In 1997 Tony Blair promised that ‘the changes that we propose would leave British law the most restrictive on trade unions in the western world’. It is time for us to act to improve the lives of Britain’s working population.

“In Britain workers cannot make a case for unfair dismissal until they have worked for an employer for a year - if sacked after 11 months they have no redress. Trade union recognition rights are still denied to a quarter of the workforce who work in small companies, yet these workplaces often have the worst health and safety records and they employ a greater proportion of women and black people.

“Staff who want their union recognised should have to achieve a simple majority in a ballot, not be required also to obtain support from at least 40% of everyone entitled to vote - no government would accept a hurdle like that in getting itself elected.

“Most importantly, we must end the pensions fiasco. Trade unions should be given the right to make investment decisions for occupational pensions according to their members’ interests. The point is to give the people who earn the money power over how it is spent. The advantage is that pensions would not be controlled in the City – instead the process would be democratised and made more accountable. This would stop employer contribution holidays and unethical investments.”

Meacher: Brown coronation would be ‘unhealthy’ for Labour

Labour leadership candidate Michael Meacher has said it is ‘imperative’ that Labour has a proper debate about its future direction, not a Brown coronation.

The former environment minister, who is the most likely candidate to face Brown in a leadership contest, said: “Gordon Brown is all in favour of competition in the public services. If he feels like that, why is the leadership of the Labour Party the only area where he seems not to want a contest?”

Meacher confirmed that he is in talks with fellow leadership candidate John McDonnell over a deal to ensure that there will be a challenge to Brown. This would see the candidate with the least chance of securing the necessary 45 nominations drop out of the race.

Meacher said: “I am glad that we are resolving this issue – the important thing is to make sure that there is a challenger from the centre-left to engage Gordon Brown in a vital debate on policy and the future direction of a Labour government. I am confident of having the support to go forward, having already secured 24 signed nominations with others highly likely to back me when the contest-proper begins.

“Labour members and trade unionists are crying out for a debate. They are in favour of a contest by a margin of three to one, according to polls. It would not be right for MPs to deny them a say.

“Blair’s presidential style of leadership has ridden roughshod over Parliament and public opinion. There is a desperate need for new thinking on the central issues of our time – the massive threat posed by climate change, the grotesque widening gap between the rich and the poor, the need for an independent foreign policy that is not subservient to the US, and the privatisation of public services.

“The Labour Party has had an election every time it has needed to change its leader in the last hundred years, except in the unique case of 1931. We should not now abandon our democratic traditions that allow the collective voice of the party to prevail, which has never been more needed than at this time.”

Meacher: ‘EU must not blackmail developing countries over trade’

Labour leadership candidate Michael Meacher has urged the UK government to use its influence to stop the EU’s proposed free trade agreements, currently being negotiated with developing countries, which he fears will create even deeper poverty.

The former minister will attend a Trade Justice Movement demonstration today at the German Embassy to oppose the EU’s Economic Partnership Agreements, alongside NGOs such as Oxfam, Christian Aid and War on Want.

Meacher said: “The EU is attempting to blackmail developing countries into accepting free trade agreements that will be disastrous for them. It is outrageous that Peter Mandelson has told African countries that higher import duties will be re-imposed and aid made conditional if they don’t sign up by the end of the year.

“I call on Trade and Industry secretary Alistair Darling to demand that developing countries are not rushed into these deals which will reinforce their low value-added role as commodity producers for the rich West. We need a fundamental change in the international trading system which enables poorer countries to develop their agriculture and industries within their own regions before they are forced to meet full competition from Western multinationals.

“It is time for a new vision of international solidarity with equal opportunities for all countries, not using blackmail to force poorer countries into new trade agreements that will continue their economic subjugation.”

ACTION NOT WORDS IS NEEDED TO TACKLE CATASTROPHIC CLIMATE CHANGE

Labour leadership candidate Michael Meacher has today (17 April) commented on the U.N Security Council’s meeting on the threat of climate change.

The former Environment Minister said: “I call on the Security Council to recognise that Climate Change is a greater threat to world security than international terrorism”

“The world currently spends a trillion pounds a year on arms sales and WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction) while at the same time spending only a few million pounds per year on climate change mitigation and WMS (Weapons of Mass Survival).”

“Only three of the five permanent members of the Security Council have so far signed up to the Kyoto Protocol – the U.S. and China have not - yet both have very strong reasons to do so.”

“We need a consensus of the Big Powers on the Security Council to re-balance global expenditure towards fighting the real enemy.”

Meacher urges BP shareholders to block ‘grotesque’ chief executive pay off

Labour leadership candidate Michael Meacher has condemned the “grotesque greed” shown in the proposed pay off of BP chief executive Lord Browne. Shareholders may stop the deal if they reject the company’s remuneration report at the AGM on Thursday (12 April). Some investors believe that Browne’s deal would be worth £72m, including pay and pension.

Meacher said the issue of ballooning executive pay must be tackled by imposing a duty on companies to ensure that shop-floor staff have a say over executive pay through representation on remuneration committees.

Meacher said: “I call on BP shareholders to reject this grotesque pay-off.

“We need to end the situation where city bosses set each other’s rewards. The remuneration committees that decide on CEO pay should include representatives from the shop floor, to inject a sense of reality.

“Peter Mandelson said ‘New Labour is very relaxed about people getting filthy rich’. This attitude has produced a vast increase in the gap between rich and poor, and it’s the rest of us who pay the price. This isn’t the politics of envy, it’s the politics of fairness and social cohesion. Gross inequalities generate many of the social problems currently afflicting Britain.”

Meacher questions government record on climate change, following devastating IPCC report

Commenting on the release today (6 April) of a hard-hitting report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Labour leadership candidate Michael Meacher said that neither the government nor David Cameron had “fully grasped the scale of the challenge, let alone proposed any serious way of meeting it”. As Labour leader he would introduce annual targets for cuts in carbon emissions and initiate a massive investment in renewable energy.

The former environment minister said: “Man-made climate change is the single greatest threat facing the world. But so far our policies, relative to the scale of the challenge set out so clearly today in the latest report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, have been marked by timidity and inadequacy.

“I challenge the Government to tell us exactly how it intends to achieve a 60% reduction in green-house gas emissions by 2050. The Budget was a missed opportunity to take a lead on this issue, and the Climate Change Bill doesn’t go nearly far enough.

“When I was minister I took a lead role in preparing legislation to require the UK’s top 1000 companies to report on their environmental impact, but this was suddenly dropped at the last moment from on high.”

“We need to make climate change an absolute priority - not only in energy policy, but in transport, industry, agriculture, construction, public expenditure and taxation, and foreign policy. We’ve got more renewable sources of energy than any other country in Europe, yet only 4% of our electricity generation comes from renewables compared with 10-25% in Germany.”

“I am calling for annual emissions targets that the Government has to meet, for the airline industry to be required to reduce its emissions each year, for tax on gas-guzzling 4X4s to be increased to a level that will significantly deter their use, and for each family to have its own yearly carbon allowance which can be traded to reward the conscientious and penalise the wasteful.

“Climate change is a top priority for younger voters, but the Conservatives are trying to steal a march on Labour – although David Cameron’s response to climate change has been limited to vacuous gesture politics. A Labour Party that fails to rise to this challenge will alienate and lose the next generation of political activists and young voters. It’s past time to take serious action.”

The IPCC report, from the authoritative U.N. network of 2,000 scientists and more than 100 governments, warns that if nothing is done to mitigate the effects of carbon emissions, by 2080 1.1 to 3.2 billion people will experience water scarcity and 200 to 600 million will suffer from hunger. Flooding of coastal cities including New York and Tokyo will claim two to seven million victims. The impact will be most keenly felt by the world’s poorest people. A temperature rise of just 1 to 2 degrees Celsius will see one-third of the Earth’s species either displaced or wiped out.

Meacher: International community must support Zimbabwe general strike

Labour leadership candidate Michael Meacher will tomorrow (Wednesday 4 April) join Zimbabwean and British trade unionists on a demonstration at the Zimbabwean embassy organised by the ACTSA in support of the two-day general strike in the country. He will call for stricter sanctions against members of the Mugabe government.

Michael Meacher said: “Zimbabwean trade unionists are risking life and limb in a general strike. We have to hear the voice of the Zimbabwean people, not the governing elites. The international community needs to support the unions, civil society groups and the churches that are working under very difficult conditions.

“I want existing measures against the Mugabe regime expanded and more vigorously enforced to cover the families of members of government. There are too many exemptions that invalidate their effect.