An open letter to the leadership candidates

By Kieran Roberts / @kieranlroberts

Dear Diane Abbott, Ed Balls, Andy Burnham, David Miliband & Ed Miliband,

Since launching Labour Friends of Chagos Islanders in the past month, there has been a great interest and support for the cause from members of our party. Through promoting the injustice of the Chagossians, one unanimous message has emerged from members: right the wrong.

We’ve had four decades to right the wrong that began in Harold Wilson’s first administration and with the exception of Robin Cook’s decision in 2000 to allow the right of return to the outer islands (subsequently reversed by Jack Straw less than four years later) we have consistently failed to defend their human rights.

Whilst we welcome the last government’s intention to conserve the Chagos archipelago, the proposals we made for a Marine Protected Area were unacceptable as they erected a barrier to the right to return and unworkable as Mauritius, who stands to inherit sovereignty in the future, will not consent to these proposals if the right to return is not dealt with.

As our party is now in a time of renewal, now is a better time than any to at last make amends for our disastrous policy on Chagos and to deliver justice for the Chagossians. So our question to you, as candidates for the leadership of our party is:

Will you, if elected leader of the Labour Party, campaign for provisions to be made in the current Marine Protected Area proposals that allow the Chagossians the right to return?

Signed:

Kieran Roberts
Director, Labour Friends of Chagos Islanders

Celia Whittaker
Sylvia Boyes
Marcus Booth
UK Chagos Support Association

Glenis Willmott MEP (Leader of the European Parliamentary Labour Party)
Tony Lloyd MP
Kate Hoey MP
John McDonnell MP
Katy Clark MP
Madeleine Moon MP
John Grogan (former MP)
Baroness Janet Whitaker

Tony Shelton
Jim Bloomer
Robert Harris
Amnesty International

Valerie Hargreaves
Jonathan Todd
Clare Regan
Robin Yates
Anneli Bray
Tom Scholes-Fogg
Tom Miller
Richard James
Mary Watson
Claire French
Jim Barker
Charlie Haigh
Rae Cross
Kathy Cross
Penny Henderson
Richard Thompson
Tony Rothwell
Paul Braithwaite
Jim Ring
Eammon O’Brien
Jean Garriock
Maureen Watson
Marilyn Molloy
Dave Cope
Virginia Branney
Louise Barker

Related posts:

1. Introducing Labour Friends of Chagos Islanders
2. Let them return: human rights should be Gordon’s legacy in Chagos
3. Gordon’s Great Barrier Reef
4. We need to know more of what our leadership candidates really believe
5. Whither Labour now: an open letter to the leader