Gladstone park could be renamed in honour of Diane Abbott

Council asks local children to suggest alternative names in slavery review

A PARK named after William Gladstone could be rebranded “Diane Abbott Park” by a Labour council as part of a slavery review.

Brent council, in northwest London, enlisted schoolchildren to choose a suitable new name for the park – which was named after the former prime minister on its creation in 1899 – in the wake of the Black Lives Matter campaign.

One proposal as part of the project to address “injustice, prejudice and racism” is to name the park, in Dollis Hill, after Ms Abbott, the Labour MP. Other suggestions supposedly thought-up by pupils as young as five include “BAME Park”, “Multi-faith Park” and “Diversity Fields”.

Brent council said it was continuing its “engagement” work pending a formal decision on a new name, which it has been searching for since the BLM protests in 2020.

At that time, Gladstone was swept up in a local review of “historical figures involved in the slave trade” over his push for slave owners such as his father to be compensated following abolition.

Although he later went on to call slavery the “foulest crime”, the four-time prime minster was named in a council-comissioned dossier of “historical figures whose views, in association with the slave trade, are inappropriate”.

Brent’s cabinet, headed by council leader Muhammed Butt, signed off plans in 2020 to have children from local schools help to devise a shortlist of new names for Gladstone Park.

The Sunday Telegraph has learnt that around 300 pupils aged five to 13 took part in the exercise, after schools were first provided with a briefing on “systematic racism” and “the tragic killing of George Floyd” by a race expert brought in by the council.

According to council documents, a video message for schools delivered by Brunel University’s Dr Inge Dornan stated that the black community in Brent continue to be affected by inequalities, adding that “the council is talking to local people about what we can all do to address injustice, prejudice and racism”.

It continued: “As part of this, Brent residents have asked the council to consider renaming Gladstone Park. This is because the Gladstone family were involved historically in the transatlantic slave trade.”

Conservative councillors in Brent have criticised calls for the park’s name to be changed, and attacked what they see as a blatant attempt at “indoctrination”. Michael Morris, a councillor, said: “We seem to be living in a society where the innocence of children is being slowly taken away. This seems just one more bite at it.”