Council could name park after Diane Abbott

LONDON:

Britain’s longest-serving black MP, Diane Abbott, could soon have a park renamed in her honour thanks to a slavery review conducted by Labour-controlled Brent Council in north west London.

Gladstone Park, in the Dollis Hill area of the borough, got its name from former Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone in 1899, but this could be changing later this year after Brent council asked schoolchildren aged five to 13 to come up with a shortlist of ideas for a rebrand.

The project was initiated in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020 and sets out to address “injustice, prejudice, and racism” in the community. Pupils were first briefed on “systematic racism” and the “tragic killing of George Floyd” by a race expert, the Council said.

Hackney Labour MP Ms Abbott’s name figured prominently in the suggestions from the pupils as well as ‘BAME Park’, ‘Multifaith Park’ and ‘Diversity Fields’.

Brent Borough Council has been searching for a new name for Gladstone Park since the eruption of Black Lives Matter protests in 2020.

Dr Inge Dornan of Brunel University said: “The black community in Brent continue to be affected by inequalities. The council is talking to local people about what we can all do to address injustice, prejudice, and racism.

”As part of this, Brent residents have asked the council to consider renaming Gladstone Park. This is because the Gladstone family were involved historically in the transatlantic slave trade.”

Historical records show that William Gladstone, who is the only person to have been prime minister on four separate occasions from 1868 to 1894, spoke out against abolition in Parliament because his family had slaves on plantations in the Caribbean.

Although he went on to call slavery the “foulest crime” in history, he was named in a council-commissioned dossier of “historical figures whose views, in association with the slave trade, are inappropriate”.

He is described as having “ultra-conservative” views and used his maiden speech in the House of Commons to support his father’s interests, arguing against abolition.

If the park is renamed after Diane Abbot later this year, it will add to her history-making career in politics. She has been Labour MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington constituency in east London for over 34 years, making her the longest-serving black female MP in the House.

It was on June 11, 1987, that Ms Abbott, along with three others – Bernie Grant, Paul Boateng, and Keith Vaz – created history by becoming the first African, Caribbean, and Asian MPs elected to the Parliament.

Born in London to Jamaican parents, Ms Abbott has since gone on to successfully retain her parliamentary seat in seven general elections. She has also served in many roles on Labour front bench, including being the first black MP at the dispatch box during Prime Minister’s Questions in October 2019 as a temporary stand-in for Leader of the Opposition Jeremy Corbyn.