Extract from Westminster
Hall debate on History Curriculum: Migration
(West Ham) (Lab):
Mary Seacole is somebody that Lucy, my mother-in-law, speaks of
regularly, and she does not understand why she is not recognised
as fully as Nurse Nightingale. So, yes, I would encourage people
to explore and discover parts of our history that are not as
prevalent and as in your face as some of the other stuff.
The work of the council continues today. As we all remember, the
theme for the previous Holocaust Memorial Day was “Torn from
home”. Schools in Newham not only used it to reflect on the
experiences of the Jewish community who were forced to leave
everything behind, incredibly important as that absolutely is,
but used it as a theme for creative inspiration—for the writing
of poetry, performances of plays and the composing of songs about
the lives of their families and the communities that they had
come from, which, in many cases, had also been torn from home.
Their experiences today are reflected sadly in our history.
Many have forgotten that Irish migrants were subjected to
terrible xenophobia and discrimination during the 19th century
and into the 20th. We forget that Jewish migration was
represented as a real threat. We have learnt not to think of the
Huguenots from France as refugees. The world did not come to a
stop when those communities joined us; our world was enriched
instead. What I am trying to say is that we sometimes fail to
make the connections that we should because we have simply
forgotten our history—or our geography...
(Wythenshawe and Sale East)
(Lab):
...I am pleased to be able to respond to the debate, whose
subject is close to my heart. Manchester, where I am from, has a
rich tradition of inward migration. It was originally founded in
AD 79 by the general Agricola, a Gallo-Roman immigrant to
Britain, who some said was black. My city has a long history of
welcoming migrants from around the world. I am a Mancunian son of
two Irish immigrants who settled there as part of a large Irish
community in the north-west of England. Britain’s second largest
Jewish community calls Manchester home. We have a large Somali
community, and Wythenshawe and Sale East, which I represent, has
a thriving Chagossian community. We de-populated the Chagos
Islands in the late 1960s to give the land to the Americans for
the Diego Garcia airbase—the mother of all injustices inflicted
on any settlement on the planet in modern times. We recently had
an International Court of Justice judgment against the UK, so we
are still seeking justice after 50 or 60 years, but the
Chagossians bring a rich tapestry to life in south
Manchester...
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Written
statement: Inheritance Tax Relief: Kindertransport
The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Jesse Norman)
The Government are proud to continue to support victims of Nazi
persecution. Earlier this year, the German Government set up a
compensation scheme for Jewish individuals who were transported
from Germany on the Kindertransport. Under the previous rules,
these payments would be treated as part of the individual’s
estate and liable to inheritance tax. The Government will
legislate in Finance Bill 2019-20 so that compensation payments
made as part of this scheme will not be subject to inheritance
tax considerations.
