David Lammy Profile picture
Dave to my friends. Labour MP for Tottenham. Shadow Foreign Secretary. Author of Tribes and Out of the Ashes. @LBC on Sundays 10 - 1pm. Spurs fan #COYS.
@littlegravitas@c.im 🇺🇦 🇪🇺 🇮🇱 🇵🇸 #FBPE Profile picture Jay Jernigan Profile picture Carole Profile picture 🇿🇦 ~Andy~ 🇧🇼 Profile picture Fiona Grace Nunn Profile picture 18 subscribed
Jul 28, 2022 5 tweets 2 min read
1/ The Conservatives have decimated Britain's global influence by failing on both the strategy and implementation of foreign policy.

This damning report published today by @instituteforgov shows how 🧵👇🏿

theguardian.com/politics/2022/… 2/ As Labour has argued, the government's Integrated Review wrongly de-emphasised European security.

Nearly three times as many staff work on the Indo-Pacific than on Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

The report found the FCDO's 'softened' focus on Russia is 'not sustainable'.
May 24, 2022 12 tweets 2 min read
The FAC report on the UK's evacuation from Afghanistan is one the most damning I have read in my 22 years in Parliament.

It shows the scale of the government’s incompetence, laziness and mishandling that likely cost lives and has badly damaged the UK’s reputation.

A thread👇🏿 A chronic planning failure where the worst-case scenario of the rapid collapse of the Afghan government was simply not prepared for. When Kabul fell, the PM, the Foreign Secretary, the Minister for South Asia and the Permanent Secretary were all on holiday.
Jun 14, 2021 4 tweets 2 min read
4 years ago we woke up to the terrible news that Grenfell Tower was on fire. For years before, residents had been raising the alarm that the building was unsafe.

They were ignored. The result was that 72 people lost their lives. It still breaks my heart.
The government promised to make buildings safe and to ensure that a fire like Grenfell would never happen again.

But so many years later, thousands still live in unsafe homes - and millions of people across the country are affected.
Mar 29, 2021 5 tweets 1 min read
Today Labour is calling for emergency action as analysis reveals the total number of convictions has fallen to a 10-year low.

It plummeted by more than a half for robbery, by 55% for theft, by 78% for criminal damage and arson and by 65% for fraud over the past decade. The drop in convictions has come despite rising crime levels – with police dealing with a record 4,900 violent crimes per day.

Increasingly, this government is letting criminals off the hook.
Jan 14, 2020 9 tweets 4 min read
Boris Johnson says he wants to see county lines drug gangs 'totally wound up'. We can all agree on the importance of tackling gang crime and violence. Here's a thread on how we can actually make progress 👇🏿 We need to recognise that the war on drugs has failed. 2,000 "county lines" routes are worth £3 million per day. Demand for cocaine and other drugs has rocketed. We need a new evidence-based approach to drugs policy. news.sky.com/story/line-18-…
Dec 13, 2019 4 tweets 1 min read
After last night's decimation, Labour needs to answer serious questions. How do we end factionalism, and come together as a party? How do we reconcile liberal Londoners with more socially conservative voters in the north? And who is best placed to lead us?
The worst thing we could do is descend into tribal infighting. We are strong when we are united. The leadership made serious mistakes, but built a huge movement that will be vital to our future. Let's bring all sides of our party together behind a new and credible offer.
May 21, 2019 5 tweets 2 min read
After years of campaigning, I'm very pleased there will now be a foundation year @UniofOxford.

This is a major step forward. Oxford is now recognising that hard work and radical reforms are needed to find the best talent from across the country.
theguardian.com/education/2019… Regardless of the town you are from, the school you go to, and your ethnic background, the country’s top academic institutions should be open to you. These reforms move some way towards making that happen.
Mar 6, 2019 4 tweets 2 min read
The @ukhomeoffice continues to fail the Windrush generation. 10 months since the government first apologised, there's still no compensation scheme.

This is further insult to all those detained, deported and treated like criminals by their own government.
theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/m… The report found systemic failure in the @ukhomeoffice to keep accurate records, leaving many struggling to prove their British citizenship. Numerous examples of the department doing "as little, rather than as much, as possible to find and help people affected by its actions”.
Mar 5, 2019 9 tweets 3 min read
Tanesha Melbourne Blake, 17, was shot and killed in my constituency last Easter Monday. After this, Theresa May should have taken personal charge of this violent crime epidemic, convened COBRA and personally driven strategy across the country.
theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/m… How many more young lives have to be taken before the PM takes this surge in violent crime seriously? How many teenagers need to be stabbed? How many have to be shot?
Feb 28, 2019 4 tweets 1 min read
It's simply not true to say I did not respond: we had two meetings in my office. I had hoped - and still hope - your coverage would improve but Stacey's post was more of the same tried tropes. As I told you before, I'm not prepared to become part of a PR exercise. It’s not about me making a nice film, but about you giving some of your very privileged platform on the BBC to the hundreds of African comedians, filmmakers, celebrities and everyday people who live on the continent.
Feb 27, 2019 6 tweets 2 min read
The world does not need any more white saviours. As I've said before, this just perpetuates tired and unhelpful stereotypes. Let's instead promote voices from across the continent of Africa and have serious debate.
mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/sta… Hi @StaceyDooley. This isn't personal and I don't question your good motives. My problem with British celebrities being flown out by Comic Relief to make these films is that it sends a distorted image of Africa which perpetuates an old idea from the colonial era.
Feb 26, 2019 5 tweets 1 min read
Wrong. This myth about Brexit being down to the white working class. In fact most leave voters were middle class southerners. Shire county Tories. The generation whose housing and pension windfalls made them wealthy. People employed in administrative and professional roles were more likely to vote leave than manual workers.
Feb 21, 2019 4 tweets 1 min read
What Aid? Most of my cousins live in Enfield, North London. The rest are in Stepney, Birmingham, Ipswich and Queens, New York.
Feb 18, 2019 4 tweets 2 min read
The scale and depth of malicious disinformation and foreign interference this report uncovers demands an urgent response from @theresa_may on behalf of the British government.

theguardian.com/technology/201… It is now blindingly obvious that we need a criminal investigation - equivalent to the US' Mueller inquiry - to investigate any possible links between the 2016 Leave campaign, Donald Trump's campaign team and Russia.
Feb 7, 2019 8 tweets 2 min read
I am upset and angry that we have let knife crime reach record levels. There is no silver bullet for this problem but various complex factors must be urgently addressed. Ambivalence and inaction will mean more young lives are needlessly lost.
The demand for drugs - particularly cocaine - has exploded. Prices are at their lowest levels in more than 25 years. There were 432 deaths relating to the use of Class A drugs in 2017, nearly quadruple the number in 2011.
Feb 1, 2019 8 tweets 2 min read
No Frank Field, my constituents are not "well provided for." 34% of Haringey residents are in poverty, we've had £280 million cuts from local budgets and 791 knife crime offences last year. Not to mention black youth unemployment is over 2X average.
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politi… This is a slap in the face to Labour's inner city voters. Your argument relies on the false idea that all leave voters were from the industrial north. Actually most Brexit voters were from the Tory south: every part of the South except London voted Leave. theguardian.com/politics/ng-in…
Jan 28, 2019 6 tweets 2 min read
The #immigrationbill being debated today is not fit for purpose. I will vote against it because it undermines the #citizensrights of 3.6m EU citizens in the UK, threatening to put many under the hostile environment and making them at risk of detention and deportation. It will force our NHS and other vital services into an even deeper staffing crisis. There are already 41,000 nursing vacancies in England. The salary threshold still under consideration would exclude many skilled medical staff, including nurses, paramedics and midwives.
Jan 13, 2019 6 tweets 2 min read
Rod Liddle having a column in one of Britain's foremost weekly newspapers is a national disgrace, as well as the walking, living, breathing personification and definition of white middle class privilege. thetimes.co.uk/article/half-o… His utterances are consistently devoid of substance, characterised by ad hominem attacks, racism and superiority. It is time that @thetimes reconsidered their employment of this man.
Jan 10, 2019 4 tweets 3 min read
There is no left-wing justification for Brexit. This is a project about neoliberal deregulation. It is Thatcherism on steroids.

My full #MeaningfulVote speech to the Commons here: facebook.com/DavidLammyTott… This country’s greatest moments came when we showed courage, not when we appeased.

Friends and colleagues tell me to appease Brexit voters. I say we must not patronise them with cowardice. Let’s tell them the truth. "You were sold a lie." #MeaningfulVote #BrexitVote
Dec 5, 2018 4 tweets 2 min read
The audacious idea of European Integration was motivated by fear. But it was made possible by shared ideals: democracy, human rights, equality, freedom, and a refusal to submit to the tyranny of fascism, ever again. The Brexiteers say we lost control because of the EU. But in reality they are still mourning Suez, Britain’s last fling of the Colonial dice.

Today we need to build a new image of Britain. One that brings this country together after years of division. Empire 2.0 is not it.
Dec 2, 2018 6 tweets 1 min read
If we are to come together as a nation, we need to recognise that racial bias is not an issue of the past. This harrowing study shows it pervades Britain today.
theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/d… 12% of the 1,000 BAME people surveyed heard racist language directed at them in the previous month. 43% had experienced it in the past five years.