TMP Online

Early day motions (EDMs) are formal motions submitted for debate in the House of Commons by MPs.  Diane Abbott (left), MP for Hackney North,  has just submitted an EDM against the Conservative’s London Mayoral candidate and MP for Henley, Boris Johnson (right) in the following terms:

“That this House condemns the reference by the hon. Member for Henley of black people as `piccaninnies’, of Africans as having `water melon smiles’ and of African people that `left to their own devices, the natives would rely on nothing but the instant carbohydrate gratification of the plantain’; notes that the leader of the Conservative Party, the rt. hon. Member for Witney, has been asked by leading members of London’s black community to disassociate his party from these remarks and has refused to do so stating that the rt. hon. Member’s remarks have been `taken out of context and fail to properly represent what he has said in the past’; further notes that the hon. Member has never disputed the fact that he wrote these comments about black and African people; and believes that there is no context in which such remarks could be defensible or justified.”

To contact your Member of Parliament to urge them to sign up to Diane Abbott’s EDM, you will find the necessary details here.