Bernie Grant: Difference between revisions

{{Short description|20th-century British politician (1944–2000)}}

|caption = Grant's funeral programmeOrder of Service

|spouse = Sharon Grant

'''Bernard Alexander Montgomery Grant''' (17 February 1944 – 8 April 2000) was a [[Labour Party (UK)|British Labour Party]] politician who was the Member of Parliament for [[Tottenham (UK Parliament constituency)|Tottenham]], London, from 1987 to his death in 2000. He was a member of the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]].

== Biography ==

Bernie Grant was born in [[Georgetown, Guyana|Georgetown]], [[British Guiana]], to schoolteacher parents, who in 1963 took up the UK Government's offer to people from the crown colonies to settle in the UKUnited Kingdom.<ref name="Almanac"/> In the UK, Grant attended Tottenham Technical College, and went on to take a degree course in Mining Engineering at [[Heriot-Watt University]] in [[Edinburgh]].,<ref>{{cite web|author-link=Mike Phillips (writer)|first=Mike|last=Phillips |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2000/apr/10/guardianobituaries.obituaries?INTCMP=SRCH |title=Bernie Grant – Passionate leftwing MP and tireless anti-racism campaigner (obituary) |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=10 April 2000 |access-date=27 July 2016}}</ref> but did not graduate.<ref name="Almanac"/>

When the [[Second Thatcher ministry|Conservative government]] introduced "rate capping", Grant led the [[rate-capping rebellion|fight against it]] in the borough in 1984.<ref name=BBC2000 /> This created division in the local [[Constituency Labour Party]], but through this split, Grant became the Borough of Haringey leader in 1985.

As council leader during the 1985 [[Broadwater Farm riot]], in which policeman [[Death of Keith Blakelock|PC Keith Blakelock]] was murdered, Grant was brought to national attention when he was widely quoted as saying: "What the police got wasgave a bloodyspeech goodoutside hiding."Tottenham GrantTown claimed his words had been taken out of contextHall, butin offeredwhich anhe apologywas towidely themisquoted familyas of PC Blakelock. A fuller version of the quotation is:saying "The youths around here believe the police were to blame for what happened on Sunday night and what they got was a bloody good hiding"<ref name="Oxford">{{cite book |title=The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations |date=1999 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-860173-9 |page=348 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o6rFno1ffQoC |access-date=23 October 2022 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Almanac"/><ref name="Weekly Worker">{{cite news |url=http://www.cpgb.org.uk/home/weekly-worker/331/changing-man?searched=bernie+grant&advsearch=allwords&highlight=ajaxSearch_highlight+ajaxSearch_highlight1+ajaxSearch_highlight2 |first=Dean|last= Woodward |title=Changing man: Bernie Grant February 17 1944 – April 8 2000 |work=[[Weekly Worker]] |publisher=[[Communist Party of Great Britain (Provisional Central Committee)|Communist Party of Great Britain (PCC)]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.istoday/20130423203414/http://www.cpgb.org.uk/home/weekly-worker/331/changing-man?searched=bernie+grant&advsearch=allwords&highlight=ajaxSearch_highlight+ajaxSearch_highlight1+ajaxSearch_highlight2 |date=13 April 2000 |archive-date=23 April 2013 }}</ref> – his actual words were "the youth think they gave the police a bloody good hiding".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://tribunemag.co.uk/2021/06/the-radical-legacy-of-bernie-grant|title=The Radical Legacy of Bernie Grant|website=Tribune|author=Onapa, Emmanuel|date=11 June 2021|access-date=27 August 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2000/may/25/uk.labour|title=Politics, race and the fight to inherit|newspaper=The Guardian|date=25 May 2000|author=Younge, Gary|access-date=27 August 2023}}</ref> His comments brought swift denunciation from the Labour Party leadership, and the then Conservative [[Home Secretary]], [[Douglas Hurd]], called him "the high priest of conflict"; several British newspapers also dubbed him "Barmy Bernie". HeGrant claimed that he was merely explaining to a wider audience what the feeling on the estate was like. He claimed his words had been taken out of context, but offered an apology to the family of PC Blakelock.{{cn|date=October 2022}} There is conflicting information over whether Grant condemned the violence of the rioters the following day.<ref name="The Guardian">{{cite news| url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2000/apr/09/uk.politicalnews1 | work=The Guardian | location=London | title=Farewell to a firebrand | first=Sarah | last=Ryle | date=9 April 2000 | access-date=26 April 2010}}</ref><ref name=BBC2000>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/706403.stm |title=Bernie Grant: A controversial figure |work=[[BBC News Online]] |date=8 April 2000 |access-date=8 April 2008 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.berniegrantarchive.org.uk/gallery/1980.asp |title=Bernie Grant Archive |publisher=Bernie Grant Trust |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090107035254/http://www.berniegrantarchive.org.uk/gallery/1980.asp |archive-date=7 January 2009 }}</ref> To some, Grant was an extremist, yet he supported the prosecution of 45 people subsequently charged with riot and affray.<ref name="Cashmore">{{cite book |last=Cashmore |first=Ellis |title=Dictionary of Race and Ethnic Relations |date=1996 |publisher=Psychology Press |isbn=978-0-415-15167-2 |page=326 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dMR259jZoF0C |access-date=23 October 2022 |language=en}}</ref>

The controversy, however, did not prevent him from being elected as the MP for Tottenham at the [[1987 United Kingdom general election|1987 general election]], one of the UK's first [[Black British people|Black British]] MPs since the Liberal [[Peter McLagan]] in the 19th century, all of them members of the [[Labour Party Black Sections]] movement, being elected at the same time as [[Diane Abbott]] and [[Paul Boateng]], as well as Britain's first [[British Asian|British South Asian]] MP since the 1920s, [[Keith Vaz]]. Grant later stood for the [[deputy Leader of the Labour Party (UK)|deputy leadership of the Labour Party]], but was unsuccessful.

In 1993, Grant co-founded and chaired the [[African Reparations Movement]] (ARM UK) to campaign for the movement for [[reparations for slavery]] and racism. ARM UK was formed following the [[Reparations for slavery#Abuja Proclamation and ARM (1993)|1993 Abuja Proclamation]] declared at the First Pan-African Conference on Reparations, in [[Abuja, Nigeria]], convened by the [[Organisation of African Unity]] (OAU) and the Nigerian government. On 10 May 1993 Grant tabled a motion in the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]] that the House welcomed the proclamation and "calls upon the international community to recognise that the unprecedented moral debt owed to African people has yet to be paid, and urges all those countries who were enriched by enslavement and colonisation to review the case for reparations to be paid to Africa and to Africans in the Diaspora; acknowledges the continuing painful economic and personal consequences of the exploitation of Africa and Africans in the Diaspora and the racism it has generated; and supports the OAU as it intensifies its efforts to pursue the cause of reparations." The motion was sponsored by Grant, [[Tony Benn]], [[Tony Banks, Baron Stratford|Tony Banks]], [[John Austin-Walker]], [[Harry Barnes (Labour politician)|Harry Barnes]], and [[Gerry Bermingham]]; an additional 46 Labour Party MPs signed to support the motion, including former [[Leader of the Opposition (United Kingdom)|leader of the opposition]] [[Jeremy Corbyn]].<ref>{{Cite web|date=10 May 1993|title=ABUJA PROCLAMATION - Early Day Motions|url=https://edm.parliament.uk/early-day-motion/5521/abuja-proclamation|access-date=2020-07-09|website=edm.parliament.uk|publisher=UK Parliament}}</ref> ARM UK, in a "Birmingham Declaration" of 1 January 1994,<ref>Quoted in [https://stopthemaangamizi.com/tag/1st-august/page/2/ "Why We March on 1st August"], stopthemaangamizi.com.</ref> called upon:

Grant's approach to reparations included demands for the return of looted African cultural heritage (such as the [[Benin Bronzes]]) and controversially that the British government should financially support those who wanted to return to their country of origin.<ref>{{Cite webnews|date=1993-10-07|title=Grant isolated over repatriation: Parties distance themselves from black MP's comments|first= Will |last=Bennett|author2=Colin Brown|url=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/grant-isolated-over-repatriation-parties-distance-themselves-from-black-mps-comments-will-bennett-1509086.html|access-date=2020-07-10|websitenewspaper=[[The Independent]]|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Keough|first=Leyla|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TMZMAgAAQBAJ&q=bernie+grant+&pg=RA2-PA36|title=Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience|date=2005|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-517055-9|editor-last=Appiah|editor-first=Kwame Anthony|author-link=Kwame Anthony Appiah|language=en|chapter=Bernie Grant|editor-last2=Gates|editor-first2=Henry Louis}}</ref>

Grant wasmarried associatedthree times, living with thehis third wife in [[SocialistMuswell Campaign GroupHill]],. andHe spokewas outdiabetic againstsince policehis racismthirties.<ref Hename="Almanac">{{cite marriedbook three|last1=Waller times,|first1=Robert living|last2=Criddle with|first2=Byron his|title=The thirdAlmanac wifeof inBritish [[MuswellPolitics Hill]]|date=1999 |publisher=Psychology Press |isbn=978-0-415-18541-7 |page=697 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9mC7pEr0R6QC |access-date=23 October 2022 |language=en}}</ref> He died from a heart attack at [[Middlesex Hospital]] on 8 April 2000, aged 56. His funeral procession on 18 April passed through Tottenham towards a service at [[Alexandra Palace]], pausing as it passed the Broadwater Farm estate. According to ''[[The Guardian]]''{{'}}s report, "An estimated 3,000 people... turned out to salute the black radical. There were dancers and singers, a Highland piper and African drums. Also present were Home Secretary, [[Jack Straw]], [[Chris Smith, Baron Smith of Finsbury|Chris Smith]], Culture Secretary, [[Clare Short]], Minister for International Development, and Paul Boateng and [[Keith Vaz]], Britain's most senior BAME ministers."<ref>{{cite web |authorfirst=Michael|last= White |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2000/apr/19/uk.politicalnews |title=Tottenham turns out in style for Bernie Grant's funeral |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=19 April 2000 |access-date=27 July 2016 }}</ref>

Grant's widow, Sharon, was on the shortlist to succeed him as the official Labour candidate for Tottenham, but was beaten by the then-27-year-old [[David Lammy]], who won the [[2000 Tottenham by-election|by-election]] in June 2000.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.davidlammy.co.uk/da/13246 |first=David|last= Lammy |title=A Tribute to Bernie Grant |publisher=Davidlammy.co.uk |date=10 October 2000 |access-date=27 July 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160822004614/http://www.davidlammy.co.uk/da/13246 |archive-date=22 August 2016 |df=dmy-all }}</ref>

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