David Lindon Lammy (born 19 July 1972) is an English politician serving as
since 2021. A member of the
Labour Party, he has been
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
(MP) for
Tottenham
Tottenham () is a town in North London, England, within the London Borough of Haringey. It is located in the ceremonial county of Greater London. Tottenham is centred north-northeast of Charing Cross, bordering Edmonton to the north, Waltham ...
since the
2000 Tottenham by-election.
Lammy was a
Minister under
Tony Blair
Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...
and
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. He previously served as Chance ...
, most recently as
Minister of State for Universities
The Minister of State for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education, formerly the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Skills, Further and Higher Education, previously the Minister of State for Universities, is a mid-level position in ...
in the
Brown ministry
Gordon Brown formed the Brown ministry after being invited by Queen Elizabeth II to form a new administration following the resignation of the previous Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Tony Blair, on 27 June 2007. Brown formed his govern ...
. He served as
Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
In British politics the Shadow Secretary of State for Justice is the member of the Shadow Cabinet who shadows the Secretary of State for Justice
The secretary of state for justice, also referred to as the justice secretary, is a secretary ...
from 2020 to 2021 and has served as
in
Keir Starmer
Sir Keir Rodney Starmer (; born 2 September 1962) is a British politician and barrister who has served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party since 2020. He has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Holborn and St Pancras s ...
's
Shadow Cabinet since November 2021.
Early life and education
Lammy was born on 19 July 1972 in
Whittington Hospital
Whittington Hospital is a district general and teaching hospital of UCL Medical School and Middlesex University School of Health and Social Sciences. Located in Upper Holloway, it is managed by Whittington Health NHS Trust, operating as Whittin ...
in
Archway, North London, to
Guyanese parents David and Rosalind Lammy.
He and his four siblings were raised solely by his mother, after his father left the family when Lammy was 12 years old. Lammy speaks publicly about the importance of fathers and the need to support them in seeking to be active in the lives of their children.
He chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Fatherhood and has written on the issue.
Lammy grew up in
Tottenham
Tottenham () is a town in North London, England, within the London Borough of Haringey. It is located in the ceremonial county of Greater London. Tottenham is centred north-northeast of Charing Cross, bordering Edmonton to the north, Waltham ...
, and was educated at Downhills Primary School there, followed by the awarding of an
Inner London Education Authority
The Inner London Education Authority (ILEA) was an ad hoc local education authority for the City of London and the 12 Inner London boroughs from 1965 until its abolition in 1990. The authority was reconstituted as a directly elected body corp ...
choral scholarship, at the age of 10, to sing at
Peterborough Cathedral
Peterborough Cathedral, properly the Cathedral Church of St Peter, St Paul and St Andrew – also known as Saint Peter's Cathedral in the United Kingdom – is the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Peterborough, dedicated to Saint Peter, Saint Pau ...
and attend
The King's School, Peterborough
Founded by King Henry VIII, The King's (The Cathedral) School is a state-funded Church of England school located in Peterborough, England.
Although for centuries a boys-only grammar school, "Kings" is now mixed and has a Junior Department in ...
. He studied at the
School of Law
A law school (also known as a law centre or college of law) is an institution specializing in legal education, usually involved as part of a process for becoming a lawyer within a given jurisdiction.
Law degrees Argentina
In Argentina, l ...
,
School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS)
SOAS University of London (; the School of Oriental and African Studies) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury are ...
,
University of London
The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...
, graduating with a
2:1.
Lammy went on to study at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
, where he became the first black Briton to attend
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States.
Each class ...
; there he studied for a
Master of Laws
A Master of Laws (M.L. or LL.M.; Latin: ' or ') is an advanced postgraduate academic degree, pursued by those either holding an undergraduate academic law degree, a professional law degree, or an undergraduate degree in a related subject. In mos ...
degree and graduated in 1997.
He was
called to the bar
The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...
of England and Wales in 1994 at
Lincoln's Inn
The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincoln ...
. He was employed as an attorney at Howard Rice in California from 1997 to 1998, and with D.J. Freeman from 1998 to 2000.
He is a visiting lecturer at SOAS.
Lammy is also a presenter on LBC and hosts a weekly Sunday show, from 10am to 1pm.
Political career
In 2000 he was elected for
Labour
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the labour ...
on the London-wide list to the
London Assembly
The London Assembly is a 25-member elected body, part of the Greater London Authority, that scrutinises the activities of the Mayor of London and has the power, with a two-thirds super-majority, to amend the Mayor's annual budget and to reject ...
. During the London election campaign Lammy was selected as the Labour candidate for Tottenham when
Bernie Grant
Bernard Alexander Montgomery Grant (17 February 1944 – 8 April 2000) was a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for Tottenham, London, from 1987 to his death in 2000.
Biography
Bernie Grant was born in Georgetown ...
died. He was elected to the seat in a
by-election
A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...
held on 22 June 2000.
Aged 27, he was the youngest
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
(MP) in the house until 2003 when
Sarah Teather
Sarah Louise Teather (born 1 June 1974) is the Director of Jesuit Refugee Service UK and a former British Member of Parliament and Minister. As a Liberal Democrat politician, she founded the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Guantanamo Bay and ...
was elected.
Minister
In 2002, he was appointed by Prime Minister
Tony Blair
Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...
as
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (or just Parliamentary Secretary, particularly in departments not led by a Secretary of State (United Kingdom), Secretary of State) is the lowest of three tiers of Minister (government), government minist ...
in the
Department of Health
A health department or health ministry is a part of government which focuses on issues related to the general health of the citizenry. Subnational entities, such as states, counties and cities, often also operate a health department of their ow ...
. In 2003, Lammy was appointed by Blair as a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the
Department for Constitutional Affairs
The Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA) was a United Kingdom government department. Its creation was announced on 12 June 2003; it took over the functions of the Lord Chancellor's Department. On 28 March 2007 it was announced that the Dep ...
and while a member of the Government, he voted in favour of authorisation for Britain to invade Iraq in 2003. After the
2005 general election, Blair appointed Lammy as Minister for Culture at the
Department of Culture, Media and Sport
, type = Department
, logo = Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport logo.svg
, logo_width =
, logo_caption =
, seal =
, seal_width =
, seal_caption =
, picture = Gove ...
.
In June 2007, new Prime Minister
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. He previously served as Chance ...
demoted Lammy to the rank of Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the
Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills
The Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) was a UK government department created on 28 June 2007 to take over some of the functions of the Department of Education and Skills and of the Department of Trade and Industry. Its h ...
. In October 2008, he was promoted by Brown to Minister of State and appointed to the
Privy Council
A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...
. In June 2009, Brown appointed Lammy as
Minister for Higher Education in the new
Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, leading the Commons ministerial team as
Lord Mandelson
Peter Benjamin Mandelson, Baron Mandelson (born 21 October 1953) is a British Labour Party politician who served as First Secretary of State from 2009 to 2010. He was President of the Board of Trade in 1998 and from 2008 to 2010. He is the ...
was Secretary of State. He held the position until May 2010 when Labour lost the election.
Opposition backbencher
After Labour lost the
2010 general election, a
Labour Party leadership contest was announced. During the contest Lammy nominated
Diane Abbott, saying that he felt it was important to have a diverse field of candidates, but nonetheless declared his support for
David Miliband. After the election of
Ed Miliband
Edward Samuel "Ed" Miliband (born 24 December 1969) is a British politician serving as Shadow Secretary of State for Climate Change and Net Zero since 2021. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Doncaster North since 2005. Miliban ...
, Lammy pledged his full support but turned down a post in the
Shadow Cabinet, asserting a need to speak on a wide range of issues that would arise in his constituency due to the "large cuts in the public services".
In 2010 there were suggestions that Lammy might stand for
election as Mayor of London in 2012. Lammy pledged his support to
Ken Livingstone's bid to become the Labour London mayoral candidate, declaring him "London's Mayor in waiting". Lammy became Livingstone's selection campaign chair. In 2014, Lammy announced that he was considering entering the race to become
Mayor of London
The mayor of London is the chief executive of the Greater London Authority. The role was created in 2000 after the 1998 Greater London Authority referendum, Greater London devolution referendum in 1998, and was the first Directly elected may ...
in the 2016 election.
Following the party's defeat in the
2015 general election, Lammy was one of 36 Labour MPs to nominate
Jeremy Corbyn
Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...
, whom he is good friends with, as a candidate in the
Labour leadership election of 2015.
London mayoral candidate
On 4 September 2014, Lammy announced his intention to seek the Labour nomination for the
2016 mayoral election. In the
London Labour Party
London Labour is the devolved, regional part of the Labour Party in Greater London. It is the largest political party in London, currently holding a majority of the executive mayoralties, a majority of local councils, council seats and parli ...
's selection process, he secured 9.4% of first preference votes and was fourth overall, behind
Sadiq Khan
Sadiq Aman Khan (; born 8 October 1970) is a British politician serving as Mayor of London since 2016. He was previously Member of Parliament (MP) for Tooting from 2005 until 2016. A member of the Labour Party, Khan is on the party's sof ...
,
Tessa Jowell
Tessa Jane Helen Douglas Jowell, Baroness Jowell, (; 18 September 1947 – 12 May 2018) was a British Labour Party politician and life peer who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Dulwich and West Norwood, previously Dulwich, from ...
, and Diane Abbott.
In March 2016, he was fined £5,000 for instigating 35,629 automatic phone calls urging people to back his mayoral campaign without gaining permission to contact the party members concerned. Lammy apologised "unreservedly" for breach of the Privacy and Electronic Communication Regulations. It was the first time a politician had been fined for authorising
nuisance call
Nuisance calls encompass any type of unwanted, unsolicited, telephone call. Common types of nuisance calls include prank calls, telemarketing calls, and silent calls. Obscene phone calls and other threatening calls are criminal acts in most jur ...
s.
Return to the frontbench
Lammy endorsed
Keir Starmer
Sir Keir Rodney Starmer (; born 2 September 1962) is a British politician and barrister who has served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party since 2020. He has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Holborn and St Pancras s ...
and
Angela Rayner
Angela Rayner (' Bowen; born 28 March 1980) is a British politician serving as Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office and Shadow Secretary of State for the Future of Work since 2021. She has been Sha ...
in the
2020 Labour leadership and
deputy leadership elections. After Starmer was elected Labour leader in April 2020, Lammy was appointed to the
Shadow Cabinet as
Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
In British politics the Shadow Secretary of State for Justice is the member of the Shadow Cabinet who shadows the Secretary of State for Justice
The secretary of state for justice, also referred to as the justice secretary, is a secretary ...
.
In the
November 2021 Shadow Cabinet reshuffle, Lammy was promoted to
.
Lammy attended the 2022
Bilderberg meeting in
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
In August 2022, an inquiry found that he had inadvertently breached the MPs' code of conduct. He apologised in a letter to
Parliamentary Standards Commissioner Kathryn Stone
Kathryn Elizabeth Stone (born 8 August 1963) was the independent Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards of the British House of Commons from January 2018 until December 2022.
Early life
Kathryn Stone was born in Derby and grew up in Belper. S ...
.
Views
Crime
Over his years in politics, Lammy has publicly attributed blame for certain crimes to various specific causes and persons. He has also talked about black and ethnic minority peoples, especially those who are younger, their relation with crime and how they are treated by the criminal justice system.
On 11 August 2011, in an address to Parliament, Lammy attributed part of the cause for England's
riots of a few days earlier to destructive "cultures" that had emerged under the prevailing policies. He also stated that legislation restricting the degree of violence that parents are allowed to use when disciplining their children was partly to blame for current youth culture, that had contributed to the riots.
Lammy blamed
Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
Boris Johnson
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as F ...
,
Home Secretary
The secretary of state for the Home Department, otherwise known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. The home secretary leads the Home Office, and is responsible for all national ...
Amber Rudd
Amber Augusta Rudd (born 1 August 1963) is a British former politician who served as Home Secretary from 2016 to 2018 and Secretary of State for Work and Pensions from 2018 to 2019. She was a Member of Parliament (MP) for Hastings and Rye, fir ...
, and Mayor
Sadiq Khan
Sadiq Aman Khan (; born 8 October 1970) is a British politician serving as Mayor of London since 2016. He was previously Member of Parliament (MP) for Tooting from 2005 until 2016. A member of the Labour Party, Khan is on the party's sof ...
for failing to take responsibility over fatal stabbings in London; he also blames inequality, high youth unemployment among black males, and local authorities cutting youth services and outreach programmes.
Lammy has stated that the criminal justice system deals with "disproportionate numbers" of young people from black and ethnic minority communities: despite saying that although decisions to charge were "broadly proportionate", he has asserted that black and ethnic minority people still face and perceive bias. Lammy said that young black people are nine times more likely to be incarcerated than "comparable" white people, and proposed a number of measures including a system of "deferred prosecution" for young first time offenders to reduce incarcerations. Lammy has claimed that black and ethnic minority people offend "at the same rates" as comparable white people "when taking age and socioeconomic status into account"; however, they were more likely to be stopped and searched, if charged, more likely to be convicted, more likely to be sent to prison and less likely to get support in prison.
Issues of race, prejudice and equality
Lammy has commented on Britain's
history of slavery
The history of slavery spans many cultures, nationalities, and religions from ancient times to the present day. Likewise, its victims have come from many different ethnicities and religious groups. The social, economic, and legal positions of en ...
. He has also criticised the
University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
for admitting relatively few black students and students from disadvantaged backgrounds. He believes the
Windrush scandal concerns injustice to a generation who are British, have made their homes and worked in Britain and deserve to be treated better.
On 5 February 2013, Lammy gave a speech in the House of Commons on why he would be voting in favour of the
Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill
The Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 (c. 30) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which introduced same-sex marriage in England and Wales.
Background
Civil partnerships were introduced in the United Kingdom in 2004, allowi ...
2013, critically comparing the relegation of British same-sex couples to
civil partnerships
A civil union (also known as a civil partnership) is a legally recognized arrangement similar to marriage, created primarily as a means to provide recognition in law for same-sex couples. Civil unions grant some or all of the rights of marriage ...
to the "
separate but equal
Separate but equal was a legal doctrine in United States constitutional law, according to which racial segregation did not necessarily violate the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which nominally guaranteed "equal protec ...
" legal doctrine that justified
Jim Crow laws
The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Other areas of the United States were affected by formal and informal policies of segregation as well, but many states outside the Sout ...
in the 20th-century United States.
In January 2016, Lammy was commissioned by then-Prime Minister
David Cameron to report on the effects of racial discrimination and disadvantage on the procedures of the police, courts, prisons and the probation service. Lammy published his report in September 2017, concluding that prosecutions against some
BAME
A number of different systems of classification of ethnicity in the United Kingdom exist. These schemata have been the subject of debate, including about the nature of ethnicity, how or whether it can be categorised, and the relationship betwe ...
suspects should be delayed or dropped outright to mitigate racial bias.
He has spoken out against
antisemitism within the Labour Party, and attended an ''Enough is Enough'' rally protesting against it. Lammy stated that antisemitism has "come back because extremism has come back" and is damaging support for Labour among
Britain's Jewish community. He is a member of
Labour Friends of Israel
Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) is a group in the Parliament of the United Kingdom that promotes support for a strong bilateral relationship between Britain and Israel, and seeks to strengthen ties between the British Labour Party and the Isra ...
.
Lammy recorded a
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...
documentary for
Remembrance Sunday
Remembrance Sunday is held in the United Kingdom as a day to commemorate the contribution of British and Commonwealth military and civilian servicemen and women in the two World Wars and later conflicts. It is held on the second Sunday in Nov ...
called ''The Unremembered: Britain's Forgotten War Heroes'', which was broadcast on 10 November 2019. In it he reveals how
Africans who died in their own continent serving Britain during
WWI
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
were denied the honour of an individual grave, despite the
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations mil ...
's reputation for equality. The documentary was produced by Professor
David Olusoga
David Adetayo Olusoga (born January 1970) is a British historian, writer, broadcaster, presenter and film-maker. He is Professor of Public History at the University of Manchester. He has presented historical documentaries on the BBC and contrib ...
's production company; Olusoga described the failure to commemorate black and Asian service personnel as one of the "biggest scandals" he had ever come across.
The documentary inspired an investigation by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
The subsequent report found that "pervasive racism" underpinned the failure to properly commemorate service personnel. The report stated that up to 54,000 casualties of "certain ethnic groups" did not receive the same remembrance treatment as white soldiers who had died and another 350,000 military personnel recruited from east Africa and Egypt were not commemorated by name or even at all. In April 2021, Prime Minister
Boris Johnson
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as F ...
offered an "unreserved apology" over the findings of the review.
Secretary of State for Defence
The secretary of state for defence, also referred to as the defence secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with overall responsibility for the business of the Ministry of Defence. The incumbent is a membe ...
Ben Wallace apologised in the House of Commons, promising to make amends and take action. Lammy, who was critical to bringing the matter to light, called this a "watershed moment".
Lammy considers himself English; he said: "I'm of African descent,
African-Caribbean descent, but I am English." In March 2021, Lammy was a guest on
LBC
LBC (originally the London Broadcasting Company) is a British phone-in and talk radio station owned and operated by Global and based in its headquarters in London. It was the UK's first licensed commercial radio station, and began to broadca ...
when he rejected a caller's assertion that the dual identity of African-Caribbean descent and English nationality are impossible.
Home Office security
In October 2022, Lammy called for a full investigation into an alleged security breach by
Suella Braverman
Sue-Ellen Cassiana "Suella" Braverman (; ''née'' Fernandes, born 3 April 1980) is a British barrister and politician who has served as Home Secretary since 25 October 2022. She previously held the position from 6 September to 19 October 2022 ...
. Lammy said: "The home secretary is the most serious job you could have in our state. This is a person who makes judgements about terrorism and counter-terrorism, who makes judgements about very, very serious offenders, whether they should be allowed out of prison, and for that reason, it's someone who, I'm afraid, judgement is critically important. I'm afraid this is a lapse of judgement that, quite rightly, she was sacked for. The question is, why was she brought back?"
Other views
Lammy described the
Grenfell Tower fire as "
corporate manslaughter
Corporate manslaughter is a crime in several jurisdictions, including England and Wales and Hong Kong. It enables a corporation to be punished and censured for culpable conduct that leads to a person's death. This extends beyond any compensation t ...
" and called for arrests to be made;
his friend
Khadija Saye died in the fire.
He also criticised the authorities for failing to say how many people had died. He has written about what he believes to be the shortcomings of the housing market.
Lammy is a staunch advocate of British membership of the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
. On 23 June 2018, Lammy appeared at the
People's Vote
People's Vote was a United Kingdom campaign group that unsuccessfully campaigned for a second referendum following the UK's Brexit vote to leave the European Union (EU) in 2016. The group was launched in April 2018 at which four Members of Pa ...
march in London to mark the second anniversary of
the referendum to leave the European Union. The People's Vote was a campaign group calling for a public vote on the final Brexit deal between the UK and the European Union. On 30 December 2020 he voted for the Brexit deal negotiated by
Boris Johnson's Government.
He supports shared
parental leave
Parental leave, or family leave, is an employee benefit available in almost all countries. The term "parental leave" may include maternity, Paternity (law), paternity, and adoption leave; or may be used distinctively from "maternity leave" and ...
, which he maintains would "normalise" fathers being an equal parent with the mother, and would mean they become more involved in the raising of children, arguing that the barriers to "fathers playing a deeper role in family life" are not just legislative, but also cultural. He points out
Scandinavia
Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion#Europe, subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, ...
n countries such as
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
as examples of where governments have successfully made this happen, which he states has also helped increase
gender equality
Gender equality, also known as sexual equality or equality of the sexes, is the state of equal ease of access to resources and opportunities regardless of gender, including economic participation and decision-making; and the state of valuing d ...
.
Comments attracting criticism
In 2013, Lammy accused the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
where the BBC tweeted "will smoke be black or white?" in reference to smoke above the
. Lammy criticised the BBC's tweet as "crass and unnecessary." He subsequently apologised after other Twitter users pointed out the role played by black and white smoke in announcing the election of a new Pope.
In January 2016 Lammy claimed that one million Indians
, not for the survival of Britain and to fight Nazism, but instead for the "European Project."; the statement was strongly criticised and ridiculed by ''
''.
perpetuated problematic stereotypes of Africa, and that they had a responsibility to use its powerful position to move the debate on in a more constructive way by establishing an image of African people as equals. His comments came after a video featuring
was criticised as "poverty porn" and was given the "Rusty Radiator" award for the 'most offensive and stereotypical fundraising video of the year'. In 2018, in response to Lammy's comments and the backlash to Sheeran's video, Comic Relief announced they would take steps towards change by halting their use of celebrities for appeals.
In February 2019, Lammy criticised
for Comic Relief, and said that "the world does not need any more white saviours", and that she was "perpetuating 'tired and unhelpful stereotypes' about Africa". He also stated however, that he does not question her "good motives".
broadcast in March 2019 fell by £8 million and the money raised that year was the lowest since 2007, which some have blamed on Lammy's remarks. Critics of his view included Wikipedia founder
. Lammy responded to criticism with a statement in which he referred to the decline in donations being due to contributing factors of austerity, declining viewing figures, trends in the charity sector and format fatigue and that he hoped his comments "would inspire the charity to refresh its image and think harder about the effects its output has on our perceptions of Africa".
In October 2020, as a result of Lammy's intervention, Comic Relief announced it would stop sending celebrities to Africa for its fundraising films.
They stated that they would no longer send celebrities to Africa nor portray Africa with images of starving people or critically ill children, instead, they would be using local filmmakers to provide a more "authentic" perspective and give agency back to African people.
In January 2019, Lammy described
having a column in a weekly newspaper as a "national disgrace" and accused Liddle of having "white middle class privilege" for expressing the view that absent fathers played a role in violent crime involving black youths. Writing in an article for ''The Spectator'', Liddle disputed Lammy's claim that he was raised in a family reliant on
, which were not introduced in the United Kingdom until Lammy was aged 31.
In April 2019, Lammy was criticised for saying his comparison of the Brexit
(which consists of Conservative MPs) to Nazis and proponents of the South African
was "not strong enough".
the couple have two sons and a daughter. Lammy is a Christian.
fan. He states that his
is "African, African-Caribbean, British, English, a Londoner and European".
'', about the August 2011 riots.
In 2020, he published his second book, ''Tribes'', which explored social division and the need for belonging.
Lammy features as one of the
on both the 2003 and 2020 lists. He has regularly been included in the ''
'' as one of the most influential people in the UK of African/African-Caribbean descent, including the most recent editions published in
.
in 2008. This gave him the
, -
, -
, -
, -
, -
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lammy, David