Great! News comes through that the Attorney General is going to ask for Mr Litvinenko’s alleged murderer to be charged and that extradition requests (to Russia) will now be made. I should bloody well hope so. Without fear or favour – that is the promise I extracted from John Reid in Parliament as to how the investigation would go. Let’s see if they mean it – or whether it was just words.
Tag Archives: alexander litvinenko
Litvinenko House: survey to go ahead at last
Catching up on the situation with the Litvinenko house (where the victim of radiation poisoning, Alexander Litvinenko lived) – the father of a near neighbour of the Litvinenko house called me on Friday to say that Haringey Council have rung his daughter and are coming to meet with her in the afternoon – and he would like me to attend too.
So I arrive and just afterwards so does a Haringey Council officer and Labour councillor Nilgun Canver. There is a little kafuffle whilst they say that they don’t want me at the meeting. I say to the father that I am happy to go if they really are saying that the meeting falls if I attend but in the end they decide they won’t press their objection to me being there.
The family had prepared their list of concerns and went through them. There is a mix of issues here in my view, many of which are interlinked. These include: how safe is it for people in the surrounding area? How safe is it in the house? How safe is it if contents of the house are taken outside the house (a flag has already been stolen from the house)? Will the house be properly secured to stop people going in and taking items out (stealing them)? Why does the Council seem to be saying contradictory things about the safety of the site?
The answers to some of these are better (and more reassuring) than others, but it all adds up to a lot of worry and concern for many residents in the area. The contrast with the other sites that suffered from radioactive contamination is particularly galling for neighbours – they got cleaned up promptly (e.g. the sushi bar and the hotel) but the house here hasn’t been cleaned up yet.
The big stumbling block to actually getting things cleaned up is that a further survey of the site is required (to establish exactly what cleaning is required) and Haringey Council won’t pay for this “characterisation survey”. They want the house owner to pay for it, but in turns the Council and the lawyers for the owner have told me that the other side hasn’t been talking to them properly. The Council’s account of events given at this meeting doesn’t seem to tally with what the lawyers on the other side had told me previously.
The breakthrough at this meeting is that after persistent questioning from the father, Nilgun Canver relented and agreed that Haringey Council will now pay for this survey. They family then tried to pin down the Council to a time-frame for both the survey and then the follow up work, but without success. But they have promised that on Tuesday a firm will be contacted about doing the survey.
Litvinenko house Emergency Prohibition Order
Litvinenko house: what the lawyers say
Went back this morning to get further clarification of what the lawyers for the directors of the company that owns the Litvinenko house are actually after – and their view on whether the funding will be forthcoming.
My take on what I have been told is that the lawyers offered to talk to Haringey in February. Nothing followed. They don’t know on what basis Haringey applied the Emergency Prohibition Notice. So they want the evidence – I guess because in the end if they are going to pay they want to know what they are paying for. They want to know that the extent of radiation or contamination so that they can make an assessment presumably of the costs.
So – Haringey really needs to respond to the lawyers with what they are asking for – but meanwhile – as stated before Haringey has the responsibility for this and needs to get their act together.
Litvinenko house: "imminent risk of serious harm"
So – finally today I got to speak to the Litvinenko lawyer following our conversation last week.
From conversations today I know that close neighbours remain worried – not surprisingly given that Haringey Council, whilst taking down the plastic sheeting, has now put up an ‘Emergency Prohibition Order’ (under the Housing Act of 2004, Section 43).
I quote from the Order: ‘The Council is further satisfied that the hazard presents an imminent risk of serious harm to the health or safety of any of the occupiers of those or other premises’.
Moreover, on the second page of the Order it affirms that the hazard is ‘radiation’; that there is contamination from Polonium 210 and that in order for the Council to revoke this order requires ‘remediation works to reduce the radiation levels of all the surfaces in all parts of the premises to not more than 10 Bequerels per square centimetre’.
Now, Haringey Council have been assuring people on their website that “Haringey Council enforcement officers want to reassure the public that living close to the property in Osier Crescent is not a health hazard”, but this is contradicted by the Emergency Prohibition Order – which says there is “an imminent risk of serious harm to the health or safety of any of the occupiers of those or other premises.”
So – I have emailed the Leader of Haringey, George Meehan to make it quite clear that in my view it is the Council’s responsibility to make sure the house is safe – and get it cleaned up.
And it is downright irresponsible to tell residents it is safe at the same time as putting up the notice saying it isn’t. Make up your mind Haringey!
Anyway – back to the Litvinenko lawyer’s update. And as I understand the situation as of this posting – the directors of the company in control of the Litvinenko house have written to Haringey to ask on what basis an Emergency Prohibition Order was applied. At the same time they have formally appealed against the imposition of the order – but they may not appeal depending on them satisfying themselves that there is a proper basis for that Order. And – I was told – Haringey have not responded.
This set of lawyers are very angry that Haringey implies that they are not cooperating as they say they have been in contact with Haringey prior to last week.
All rather messy and unsatisfactory! But it boils down to this: Haringey Council says on its website that everything is safe, but they Emergency Prohibition Order says not. The lawyers involved say Haringey hasn’t responded to everything and think the Council is wrongly implying that they are playing ball.
So my message to Haringey Council is simple – stop messing around, stop saying conflicting things and get it sorted.
Tackling radiation by press release
Unbelievable – Haringey Labour issued a press release attacking me for saying that the Litvinenko House should be cleaned of radiation.
Local neighbours are worried – and Haringey has done sweet you know what since I wrote to them way back months ago.
Apparently Nilgum Canver, a local Labour councillor, is not at all interested in getting the house situation sorted – only saying that Haringey won’t pay for it.
I’m not sure local people will exactly be pleased with a council that says it is not doing anything – not even getting a reading or survey on the levels of radiation – if the council has to pay. It’s the householder’s responsibility they say. Well – actually it’s Haringey’s responsibility. They have the keys. They are the environmental health authority in charge. Clean it – get is sorted – and then the cost if legitimately solely the householder – claim it from them.
But above all – don’t leave local people worried, living next to a house with plastic protective sheeting on it – and do nothing.
It is absolutely shameful that both the Government and Haringey want basically nothing more to do with this.
It is me who is chasing the Litvinenko lawyer to get the insurance or finance for the cleansing. It should be them! As one reporter said to me ‘The only thing Haringey have done is issue a press release’.
The lawyer said he was now awaiting instructions when I spoke to him yesterday – and that he would get back to me as soon as poss. But not thanks to Haringey Council and the Labour councillors.
When will Alexander Litvinenko's house be cleaned up?
The killers of Alexander Litvinenko (who lived in my constituency) have not been brought to justice – and pursuit of that end continues. Meanwhile – back at the homestead – the house in which he lived remains empty with the protective plastic sheeting around the entrance and the neighbours wondering what is happening. Are they in any danger? When will the house be put right? This hit the press locally again last week as neighbours of the polluted house are concerned – and rightly so.
Well – as far as I can gather the situation is thus. The keys were literally handed over to Environmental Health at Haringey Council back on January 3rd. I contacted them to ask what would happen and was informed that they would be meeting with the house owner (not Mr Litvinenko but a company) on February 19th. And then – nothing happened.
Going back to the case and pursuing further ‘enquiries’, my understanding is that the sticking point is the cost of the clean up. Technically I am told that it is the householder’s responsibility – but this is hardly a normal case and special agencies will have to be brought in. I am pursuing this currently with Mrs Litvinenko’s solicitor who is very helpful.
However, Haringey Council have done pretty much nothing whilst the Government have washed their hands off of it – and won’t entertain any funding towards cleaning. And in the circumstances – normal rules shouldn’t apply as having a case of radiation poisoning isn’t exactly a normal circumstance.
The Litvinenko murder
So – we now have a public suspect in the Litvinenko murder story and it looks like the Russians aren’t keen for him to be extradited. John Reid promised publicly from the Despatch Box of the House of Commons when I questioned him that he would pursue this without fear or favour. So – I expect diplomatic relations to become extremely strained as he pushed the Russians and keeps his word!
The Pre Budget Report
Pre Budget Report! Sky News had booked me from 11-1.00pm to be on their budget panel. I did it last year – and although it looked like two hours then, in reality my panel was whisked in and out a couple of times for two x five minute slots. So I assumed this would be the same.
However – this time I found I was on the anchor panel which means that throughout the time Adam Boulton comes back to the panel to comment on each bit of the process. My co-panellists were Stephen Byers (ex-Labour minister) and David Ruffley (Tory front bench).
Not being a member of the Treasury Team, I am always slightly apprehensive about covering the Budget and similar areas – but it’s excellent practise and there is no other way of learning. So I am grateful to Sky for the opportunity.
The Pre Budget Report was pretty much like a budget with Gordon Brown playing Santa Claus. When you listen to him (and we watched it live on a monitor) he is magnanimous – he giveth. He will save the British Film industry, back excellence in science, ensure more young people go to university, give money for investment in school buildings and so on and so on.
Blinding us with reports and statistics – Gordon likes big volumes of commissioned research (well who wouldn’t) to back up his arguments. By the end of his speech you would have though the world would be set to rights – albeit there’s still much to be done and a long way to go.
But whilst the impression is Santa Claus, as the day unfolds and the experts do their analysis – the gilt comes off the presentation to reveal the truths underneath.
Adam B asked what we thought of Gordon, Prime Minister in waiting. Stephen Byers said that he never commented on such matters. However, I was not so unforthcoming as I have for years now said on this blog and elsewhere that I think Gordon doesn’t quite have the finishing punch – albeit clunking. When the going has got tough for Tony – where has Gordon been, other than brooding in the background?
And despite his recent charm offensive – he is still comes over as basically a rather serious man with a grumpy look. He will frighten Middle Earth! I suspect when he is PM he will find Prime Minister’s Questions very difficult. He is not, as far as I can tell, quick like Tony in terms of retort and I have hardly ever heard him speak outside of the narrow focus of his treasury portfolio in the ten years he has been at No 11.
So – back to the budget. What Gordon didn’t deal with at all is the risk to the stability of our economy caused by huge personal debt. We in this country are responsible for one third of the debt in western Europe and three quarters of a million people have already defaulted on one or more of their mortgage payments. We are at a peak in terms of house prices which has happened three times before this century – on each occasion a rebalancing has occurred. That would knock 30% of house prices and destabilise the economy.
We are calling for the Bank of England to measure house prices in their targeting of inflation – otherwise we are at risk!
As for Gordon’s environmental measure – some good things but on the biggy (air travel) he chose to tax the traveller rather than the producer. Adding tax to each ticket doesn’t help force airlines not to fly empty planes. Much better if he had taxed plane journeys – as that would encourage efficiency.
Anyway – two and a half hours later I left to rush late to an interview with Russia TV about Mr Litvinenko. The Russians are clearly somewhat sensitive about their possible connection with these goings on – but I don’t think that stating that they will not extradite anyone is particularly helpful. Yesterday the Washington Post phoned for an interview too – a reminder of just how this story has caught people’s emotions and interest.
Alexander Litvinenko's death: questions in Parliament
Get a text from the Whip’s Office that there will be an Urgent Question in Parliament from the Conservatives. The Urgent Question is to ask the Home Secretary, John Reid, to make a statement on the death of Alexander Litvinenko.
Basically he just runs through the timetable of events – not really adding anything new. I manage to get called to pose a follow-up question on the lines of:
Mr Litvinenko was my constituent. He was a British Citizen. Can the Home Secretary give me assurances that his death will be investigated without fear nor favour regardless of the diplomatic sensitivities of Russia and that the findings of that investigation will be full, fair and frank?
John Reid was pretty straight in his reply – and basically said that the police would do their job without interference.
As I said in an interview with BBC 24 afterwards, the main points as I see them are: a straight police investigation without interference; that there are questions that still need to be answered as to whether Mr Litvinenko brought his fears to the police before the 1st November; whether other Russian dissidents are concerned and whether they have been contacted in regard to this; have others contacted the police at any time about being followed by secret services and of course – from the public point of view – until the few people who have been asked to take more medical tests get the all clear – there is a residue of concern about contamination around the places where the radioactive material was found.
As Ming Campbell has said, we must not rush to judgement. However, as Ming also pointed out, if it should end up with Russia’s fingerprints on this – then a country which wants a seat at the top table cannot be associated with state terrorism.
Lynne Featherstone 