Mayor launches #HackneyLovesYou campaign to make EU nationals feel welcome amid Brexit debate
Mayor Philip Glanville unveils new badges (Photo: Hackney Citizen)
Mayor Philip Glanville has launched a ‘#hackneylovesyou’ campaign to make the borough’s 41,500 residents from the EU feel welcome amid debates over Brexit.
The Mayor paid tribute to the contribution EU nationals make in Hackney and unveiled a new “I Love Hackney” badge modelled on the EU flag.
Mayor Glanville said: “As we enter a party conference season that it is clear will be dominated by Brexit debates, some no doubt more constructive than others, the three million EU nationals living in this country may be feeling that they have become collateral damage in the political fallout from last year’s referendum.
“European citizens in Hackney make an enormous contribution to the civic, economic and cultural life of this borough, and it seems right that at this time of anxiety and change, we should let them know how much we value them, and the contribution that they make.”
The Mayor is asking for stories about how EU nationals contribute to life in Hackney to be sent in by email to mayor@hackney.gov.uk or tweeted with the hashtag #hackneylovesyou. Badges will be sent to anyone who takes part.
Hackney had one of the strongest Remain votes in the EU referendum, with 78 per cent voting to stay in the EU.
Mayor Glanville said: “As a local authority we can’t do much about Brexit, apart from collectively lobby government to lessen the impact on local services.
“But what we can do is to tell our EU citizens that they will always be welcome here, and that Hackney values all the positive things that they, collectively and individually, bring to the borough.
“And while we recognise that hate crime in Hackney has not increased a greatly as elsewhere, we must be vigilant and stand up for our shared values.”
He added: “With that in mind, we’ve produced a special, limited edition ‘I Love Hackney’ badge that celebrates our EU citizens. As a veteran of many political and charity campaigns, I know that you can’t change the world with badges.
“However, there is something powerful about giving people a way to express the way they feel, and I hope that, even in this small way, we can make our citizens feel welcome and valued, at a very uncertain time.”
I bet the Mayor regrets his sentence talking about how the conference season will involve debates on Brexit. Labour members, famously, voted to choose other issues as being more important this year, and they didn’t debate Brexit.
Labour positions itself as pro Europe in Remain voting areas and pro Brexit in Leave voting areas. Talk about the worst type of duplicitous politics. Their official party policy is still to leave the EU and end freedom of movement for labour from across the EU.
The Liberal Democrats and Greens have been steadfastly pro Remain. Make no mistake, regardless of what local Labour politicians and members might think, Labour is a pro Leave party.
So the Mayor is sending out another strange message, to the migrant workers in Hackey.
Does he only love European workers
What about the African, Turkish, Kurdish, Bangladeshi, Vietnamese and all the other Global workers. Do they not matter.
We dont want any division between our communities. We certainly dont need the Mayor pandering to the Remainers and the Brexiteers all in the same message.