Call for investigation after Tory candidate fails to declare shares.

Following the revelation in today’s Standard that Boris Johnson failed to declare his share ownership in a TV company, Labour’s Karen Buck has asked the Commissioner for Parliamentary standards to investigate.

Karen Buck MP for Regent’s Park and Kensington said:

“Boris Johnson is trying to repackage himself as a serious and competent politician whilst claiming that his failure to comply with rules on reporting these share holdings to the Parliamentary commission was simply an oversight.
“I am afraid this once again calls into question Boris Johnson’s competency for one of the most serious jobs in the country.
“I have today written to Commissioner for Parliamentary standards to seek an investigation into this apparent breach of the rules.”

Clive Efford, Labour’s MP for Eltham said:

“This is not a small technical breach of parliamentary rules but a serious one that should be investigated by the House of Commons authorities to determine if further actions are required.
“That he appears to have broken the rules in this way exposes Boris Johnson’s hypocrisy in claiming he wants greater transparency, although I suspect that this is not due to a deliberate attempt to subvert the Commons’ rules and is just typical of Boris Johnson’s sheer ineptitude.
“Given all the publicity around these issues, it incredulous that anyone but a complete incompetent could make such an oversight.
“If he can’t get his own finances in order, how can Boris Johnson’s ask people to trust him with London’s £39 billion transport budget?”

Karen spoke out about knife crime in Parliament yesterday as took part in the debate on crime in London.

Opening her speech on the subject, Karen said,

Three children have died as a result of knife crime in my constituency in a little over a year—Kodjo Yenga, Jevon Henry and Amro Elbadawi. I have sat with the parents of the two children who were my constituents, as has Ken Livingstone, who made a private visit, not making political capital, unaccompanied by the media and cameras. I have listened to their grief and to what they had to say about young people and the culture and the problems that have led in some instances to gangs and in some instances to conflicts that have got out of hand.

You can read the whole of Karen’s contribution by clicking  HERE.

Karen yesterday led a Parliamentary debate on housing need in London.

The debate at 2.30pm in Westminster Hall lasted an hour and half. If you missed it, you can watch it on parliamentlive.tv by clicking the link below.

http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/VideoPlayer.aspx?meetingId=1536

(please note that this is an external link and we are not responsible for its contents)

The full debate is now also available from the Hansard website to read online:

Read the debate online now

New figures from the Office of National Statistics show that the total number of people in work rose to a record high of 29.51 million-450,000 up on a year ago, and unemployment fell to 794,300- the lowest since 1975.

Average earnings increased by 3.7% over the same period.

Karen Buck MP commented on the news saying, “The credit crunch which has followed from the crisis in American banks and other financial institutions is causing real pain, and more needs to be done to ease the pressure. However, unlike the economic crash of the late 1980s, interest rates remain relatively low and employment is strong.”

At a recent meeting with residents, I heard complaints that the recycling bins were sometimes not emptied for weeks at a time. Everyone accepts that domestic recycling is tougher in areas with lots of flats, but even so, last year’s figures showed that Westminster lags behind even other inner London boroughs for performance in recycling, One simple step is to ensure that recycling bins are emptied very regularly, and I have asked the Council’s Director of Environmental Services to investigate.

Latest crime figures from the Metropolitan Police Authority show a further fall in almost every type of crime. Karen Buck says “Time to congratulate the police, stop talking crime up, and get on with the job that has still to be done- particularly around youth crime”.

• Overall crime is down by 6%- carrying on a longer term trend in crime reduction
• robbery is down by almost 20%
• knife crime has fallen by 15%
• violent crime is down overall by 8%

Westminster crime - Almost 3000 fewer Westminster residents were victims of crime in 2007/8 than in the year before.

What happens next?

There is still a job to do…
Every crime is one too many, and there is more to be done, especially in crime prevention, and working with young people to reduce violent crime by, and between them. Although the vast majority of young people are not involved in crime, this is clearly an area that needs more work, in terms of enforcement, the use of stop and search/stop and account powers to reduce the use of weapons, and diversion activities that keep young people occupied. Ken Livingstone’s grant to boroughs to develop youth services is a big step in the right direction, and needs to be supplemented by more work with schools, and more access to sports.

10,000 extra police in London did not happen by accident…
Ken Livingstone has put 10,000 more police officers on to the streets of London, and pledged another 1000 if he is re-elected. This reversed a decline in the numbers of police under the Conservative government.

Neighbourhoods under pressure need more attention…
Some neighbourhoods have higher crime levels than others- and this often mirrors levels of deprivation. I am concerned that higher crime and higher fear of crime in these areas- like Harrow Road and Westbourne- is not always reflected in levels of resources. I have been campaigning for months to get this recognised, and will carry on doing so.

Conservatives need to get their lines straight...
These figures leave the Conservatives divided. Whilst some of them are still talking crime up, others, including Conservative controlled Westminster Council, recognise the fall in crime- claiming in their service guide for 2008 that “ Crime reduction is an achievement- there was a fall in total crime figures last year, including a 6.8% fall in burglary”

Check crime figures in your area

There was NO vote on post office closures in parliament!

The Conservatives only suggested a delay to allow local councils to step in- but have not promised a penny more in subsidy. The Conservative Central HQ Campaign Pack on Post Offices makes only two serious suggestions: 1) that they ‘get in early to prevent the Liberal Democrats from making the running’, and 2) only suggests that they ask local councils to take over some offices.

The Tories accept the need for Post Office closures. In the Opposition debate on 19 March 2008, their spokesman Alan Duncan said;

o ‘’We have to face facts about the future of the postal offices in this country’’
o ‘’We understand that the Post Office is haemorrhaging around £4million a week’’.
o ‘’Let me make it clear that we fully expect the network to shrink in size’’
o ‘’It must be admitted that the internet has displaced much of the revenue-earning activity preciously enjoyed by post offices’’

The Conservative motion would not have stopped the closure programme. They proposed no alternative which would change the facts facing the Post Office network and in fact lengthy delay would have ended up costing more money as it would have delayed the Post Office from addressing the losses affecting the network week in week out.

During the opposition day debate on the 19 March, in response to Martin Salter MP, asking him to;

‘’…give an undertaking on behalf of his party to put £1.7 billion of investment into the network so it can be sustained…’’

Conservative spokesman Alan Duncan replied; “I will not do that”

The Conservatives claim to be fighting to save local Post Offices, but without putting in a penny of extra subsidy. Before 1997, the Conservatives did not subsidise the Post Office. We have put in £2 billion and will be spending more than £1 billion between now and 2011, but only 4,000 Post offices- less than a third of the total- pay their way, and 4 million people fewer used the service last year, compared with three years ago. It is absolutely right that we should subsidise this important service, and I am fighting very hard to maintain it locally.

Indeed, we just won the battle over the Harrow Road crown Post Office in Queen’s Park. What we must now accept is the argument of an opposition which closed Post Offices in the 80s and 90s, offered no subsidy and are not promising any more money themselves.

London Tigers are a successful grass roots sports and community organisation- sprung from Church Street, but priced out of Westminster facilities,

Karen took Mesba Ahmed, the club’s organiser, to meet Secretary of State Andy Burnham to ask for his support in improving access for London Tigers to Regent’s Park and other local facilities- and to look at what more can be done to boost sports in Westminster. Meanwhile, Karen is also asking Westminster Council to axe charges for schools using Paddington Reek, and is backing the All Star’s Boxing Club’s bid for funds from Ken Livingstone’s ‘Young Londoners’ fund, after the project was turned down by Westminster Council.

What more can we do to boost community sport in Westminster? Let me know

Karen has joined many other MPs expressing their concerns about the increasingly worrying situation in Gaza:

That this House expresses its revulsion at the mounting death toll in Gaza caused by Israeli military strikes; notes that around half of the 108 Palestinians killed in the six days between Wednesday 27th February and Monday 3rd March 2008 were civilians; also condemns the rocket and mortar attacks from Gaza which have killed one Israeli civilian in southern Israel in the last nine months and which, according to figures supplied by the British Israel Communications and Research Centre, have been responsible for the deaths of 24 Israelis since 2001; further notes that Israel’s military strikes and its economic blockade of Gaza are achieving the opposite of their stated aim of deterring such rocket attacks; further notes that the strikes and blockade are causing widespread humanitarian suffering and, by collectively punishing the entire people of Gaza for the actions of those firing rockets, Israel’s actions are contrary to international law; further notes the UN Security Council statement of 2nd March, and the statements from the United Kingdom Foreign Secretary and the EU Presidency dated 2nd March and 3rd March respectively; and therefore calls upon the international community to press for an immediate ceasefire in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank and adherence to international law by all parties, including requiring Israel to abide by its legal obligations as an internationally recognised state, and emphasises the United Kingdom’s particular responsibility to ensure international compliance with humanitarian law as a High Contracting Party to the Fourth Geneva Convention.