Hain ‘supported by women’ after speaking out in Parliament
LORD HAIN yesterday used parliamentary privilege to name the businessman at the centre of Britain’s Metoo scandal.
The Labour peer told Newsnight on BBC Two he had received “overwhelming support – particularly from women” on his decision to speak out.
Last night, Lord Hain explained his reasons for using parliamentary powers, saying: “What concerned me about this case was wealth, and power that comes with it, and abuse. And that was what led me to act in the way that I did.
“It’s for others to judge whether I’ve been right or wrong. But there’s no point in being in Westminster – which is the sovereign centre of the British constitution, has sovereignty and with it the parliamentary privilege that is a privilege – if you never discharge that.”
The peer is perhaps best known for fighting against the apartheid movement when so many others watched silently on the sidelines.
He began his struggle against the South African regime as a teenager and fought on in the face of adversity including a letter bomb sent to his family home in 1972 by the South African Security Services. The bomb failed to explode, but it seems his opponents were not done. Four years later he faced trial for bank theft – he claims he was framed – and was acquitted.
In an interview with The Belfast Telegraph he said the attacks “reinforced my view that we were being successful. Being branded public enemy number one didn’t bother me”. “Being sent a letter bomb did bother me, being prosecuted for an offence I hadn’t committed certainly bothered me,” he added. “Although people disagreed with me politically, vehemently and bitterly, no one ever said I was dishonest.”
Even after entering parliament he had to battle against suspicion from the authorities. He claimed that Special Branch held files on him dating back to his activist years that were still live 10 years into his time as MP.
He held several ministerial positions, including Welsh secretary in the Gordon Brown government, secretary of state for Northern Ireland and work and pensions secretary. Lord Hain was leader of the Commons from 2003 to 2005, a role that makes yesterday’s intervention even more significant.
He recalled as a child in South Africa being woken up in the middle of the night by apartheid secret police who searched his room for incriminating evidence against his parents. His mother was issued with a banning order that prevented her from talking to her children’s teachers or taking part in any social or political activity. A year later his father also received a ban.
He led protests against South African white-only rugby matches, invading pitches and forcing the cancellation of the 1970 South African UK cricket tour.
He also played a role in the notorious Thorpe affair. In 1978 he send a private memo, copying in several senior Labour politicians, in which he warned against mounting a cover-up of an alleged attempted murder of Jeremy Thorpe’s former lover Norman Scott.