Bernie Grant

Bernie Grant
him wearing an african suit/boubou
Member of Parliament for Tottenham
In office 11 June 1987 – 8 April 2000
Preceded by	Norman Atkinson
Succeeded by	David Lammy
Personal details
Born	17 February 1944(1944-02-17) Georgetown, Guyana
Died	8 April 2000(2000-04-08) (aged 56)
Nationality	British
Political party	Labour
Religion	Christian

Bernard Alexander Montgomery Grant (17 February 1944 – 8 April 2000), known simply as Bernie Grant, was a politician in the United Kingdom, and was Labour member of Parliament for Tottenham at the time of his death. He was born in Georgetown, Guyana, and took up the British government's offer to let people from colonies move to the UK to do blue-collar work, in 1963. In the mid-1960s he was for a period a member of the Socialist Labour League. He quickly became a trade union official, and moved into politics, becoming a Labour councillor in the London Borough of Haringey in 1978.

When the Conservative government introduced "rate capping", Grant led the fight against it in the borough^{[citation needed]}. This split the local Labour party, but through this split Grant became the Borough of Haringey leader in 1985.

He took control of the rebuilding project of Alexandra Palace which had been partially destroyed in a fire. The project had £15 million in cash, but the lack of financial control saw this surplus turn into deficit and interest payments eventually took the debt to a total of £80 million.^{[citation needed]}

As Council leader during the Broadwater Farm riot of 1985, in which a policeman, PC Blakelock, was murdered, he was brought into the national eye. He was widely quoted as saying "What the police got was a bloody good hiding". Grant claimed he had been taken out of context, but offered an apology to the family of PC Blakelock. A fuller version of the quotation is "The youths around here believe the police were to blame for what happened on Sunday and what they got was a bloody good hiding.". 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" and several British newspapers dubbed him "Barmy Bernie". He claimed that he was merely explaining to a wider audience what the feeling on the estate was like. There is conflicting information whether Grant condemned the violence of the rioters the following day .

The controversy, however did not prevent him becoming MP for Tottenham in the 1987 election, one of only three black MPs at the time. He later stood for the deputy leadership of the Labour Party.

In 1989, Grant established and chaired the Parliamentary Black Caucus, modeled after the Congressional Black Caucus of the United States. The organization was committed to advancing the opportunities of Britain's ethnic minority communities.

He was associated with the Socialist Campaign Group, and spoke out against police racism. He was married 3 times, living with his last wife in Muswell Hill. He died from a heart attack. His widow, Sharon Grant, was on the shortlist to succeed him as Labour candidate for Tottenham, but was beaten by the then-27-year-old David Lammy, who won the by-election.

In September 2007 in Tottenham, London, Haringey Council opened the Bernie Grant Arts Centre in his name.

See also

Times Guide to the House of Commons 1997

External links

• Black Presence - Bernie Grant MP
• berniegrantarchive.org.uk

References

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Norman Atkinson	Member of Parliament for Tottenham 1987–2000	Succeeded by David Lammy