Since the UK narrowly voted to Leave the European Union on the 23rd of June there has been some considerable political turmoil.
Thurlow Park Labour, all three Councillors, our London Assembly Member Florence Eshalomi and our MP Helen Hayes, campaigned across Lambeth for the Labour In campaign urging a Remain vote in the referendum. We were also pleased to have been joined by many volunteers from the community and to see the great positive reception the Britain Stronger In Europe campaign had at the Herne Hill market in the run up to the referendum.
In Thurlow Park 78% voted to Remain in the EU which was in line with the average across Lambeth where 79% voted to Remain – the highest level of support for Remain in mainland Britain. The Leader of Lambeth Council Lib Peck said she was proud of Lambeth’s result and that it was a “testament to the people of this borough and the hard work of all those who campaigned to achieve it.”
There has been considerable campaigning since the result as millions have signed a petition calling for a second referendum and there have been two large public demonstrations in support of the EU.
Thurlow Park Labour respects the result of the nation more broadly but recognise that it raises a large number of complex questions and are very concerned about some of the outcomes. In particular the 1000s of EU citizens living in Lambeth should be reassured that both the Leader of the Council Lib Peck and Sadiq Khan have issued statements strongly defending their rights to reside in the UK after Britain leaves the EU. We have also been alarmed at the number of hate crimes in the UK directed against people of all nationalities which appear to have risen in the aftermath of the referendum. We think incidents such as the attack on the Polish community centre in Hammersmith are disgusting and have no place in society.
In response we supported a motion that came forward at the last meeting of Lambeth Council condemning hate crime and we will work to allocate the resources that we have to prevent such incidents from occurring in our area.
In particular if anyone living in the ward feels in anyway unsafe or is targeted please report this to the Thurlow Park Safer Neighbourhood team – http://content.met.police.uk/Team/Lambeth/Thurlowpark – or you can contact us. We want to do as much as we can to help protect our wonderful, rich and diverse community.
Finally in relation to the road ahead – there may be a number of political and economic challenges to come. We are committed to ensuring that over the next few months we work closely with the council leadership to ensure that the economic uncertainty in Lambeth is minimised as far as is possible.
Thurlow Park News 