The Speaker of the House of Commons and the Sir Robert McAlpine chief executive both joined the war of words about the \u00a329m contract to refurbish Big Ben being awarded to the blacklist company. On Tuesday 5th September during a Westminster Hall debate on blacklisting MPs including Labour and SNP frontbenchers Jack Dromey and Chris Stephens joined Chuka Umunna in calling for the company that was at the very heart of The Consulting Association human rights scandal to be stripped of the Big Ben contract.<\/p>\n
The former shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna went further on Thursday 7th by raising a ‘point of order’ on the floor of the House of Commons asking the Speaker, his “views and advice with regard to the matter of Big Ben” adding, “what\u00a0message do you think it sends to the victims of this gross injustice for this House to award a contract to a firm that not only funded the Consulting Association, but provided its first chair and\u00a0\u200banother chair?”<\/p>\n
John Bercow replied that the question was “perfectly legitimately and reasonable” adding that although the company had been awarded the initial contract to provide scaffolding, the full contract had not yet been officially awarded to McAlpine. The Speaker of the House of Commons summed up by confirming “It is important. We are sensitive to it and we will be conscious in the days ahead of the reputational importance” and told MPs that he would make enquiries and make a further\u00a0statement.<\/p>\n
Stung by the ongoing criticism, the\u00a0chief executive of Sir Robert McAlpine Limited, Paul Hamer wrote a letter to a number of newspapers claiming that “blacklisting \u201chas no place now or in the future\u201d at his firm and that\u00a0the contractor was committed fully to “a zero-tolerance policy towards blacklisting, illegal or unfair recruitment practices\u201d.\u00a0 Adding that\u00a0\u201cI am pleased to confirm that Sir Robert McAlpine complies fully with all legislation to prevent blacklisting and is committed to fair and transparent recruitment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roy Bentham, blacklisted carpenter from Liverpool and\u00a0Blacklist Support Group, joint secretary responded to the McAlpine statement: “Paul Hamer might be the CEO but\u00a0Cullum McAlpine owns the\u00a0company and I sat\u00a0behind\u00a0Cullum McAlpine when he gave evidence to the\u00a0select\u00a0committee investigation. Upon\u00a0advice from his lawyer who was sitting next to him throughout, the blacklister in\u00a0chief\u00a0smugly refused to answer questions put to him by MPs. The\u00a0select\u00a0committee report stated\u00a0that they were “far from certain that all of our witnesses have told us ‘the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth’, despite many of them being under oath”. Blacklisted workers\u00a0completely agree with that assessment by MPs<\/p>\n
“Thirty years ago Sir Robert McAlpine Limited denied blacklisting\u00a0people as part of the Economic League, 10 years ago they denied blacklisting people as part of The\u00a0Consulting Association. And now they assure us that they’ve given up blacklisting\u00a0completely. Given the company’s previous honesty on blacklisting, how could anybody possibly not\u00a0believe\u00a0them now?”<\/p>\n