Other Labour politicians have not been as helpful as Kate Hoey in tackling the evictions issue…
Fellow Lambeth MPs Chuka Ummuna and Tessa Jowell have been silent on the issue. Lambeth & Southwark GLA member Val Shawcross‘ first reaction when she heard about the eviction policy was “this shouldn’t be happening”, but she failed to follow through with any discernible pressure on Lambeth Council.
Former shadow housing spokesman Jack Dromey MP failed to answer us at all. Current spokesman Emma Reynolds MP said she was “fully supportive of housing co-operatives” but pleaded parliamentary protocol to avoid commenting in specifics – which is a shame given that politicians are only too happy to praise councils that are not their own when they do something right…
Ed Miliband has been silent too, despite being contacted about this by email in October 2012 (and chased up ever since) and meeting one of our members in person in August 2013 (his advisor took his details but he never heard back).
To complete the conspiracy of silence, our complaint to the Co-operative Party about the involvement of Co-op councillors in the eviction policy has not been answered since it was made in April 2013!