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What is it like to be blacklisted?
Mr David Hamilton, Labour MP from MidLothian: "[After I was blacklisted] my wife could not get a job until she took my mother’s address. I was unemployed for two and a half years."
Jim McGovern, Labour MP for Dundee West: "It was not only construction workers—in fact, not only workers—who found themselves on the blacklist. Mr Syd Scroggie from Dundee—a disabled war veteran who lost a leg and the sight in both eyes while serving this country—found himself on the blacklist. Why? Because he sent a letter to the local press commending them for awarding Nelson Mandela the freedom of the city."
John Mann, Labour MP for Bassetlaw: "I went for an interview and was given the job. It was confirmed ... but a week later I get a phone call. A very embarrassed human resources person ... [who] says, 'I’m very sorry, but you’re on a blacklist ... You can't have the job. The offer is withdrawn.' I was almost certainly on the blacklist because—I have read up on this—I was involved organising the national anti-apartheid demonstrations. I organised a number of the students who went and was part of the team who pulled together the national demonstrations with Oliver Tambo and Jesse Jackson. Lots of hon. Members from different parties were no doubt there, but if they look back, they will see that anyone involved in the anti-apartheid movement somehow managed to get on the Economic League blacklist."
John Mann, Labour MP for Bassetlaw: "I went for an interview and was given the job. It was confirmed ... but a week later I get a phone call. A very embarrassed human resources person ... [who] says, 'I’m very sorry, but you’re on a blacklist ... You can't have the job. The offer is withdrawn.'
"I was almost certainly on the blacklist because—I have read up on this—I was involved organising the national anti-apartheid demonstrations. I organised a number of the students who went and was part of the team who pulled together the national demonstrations with Oliver Tambo and Jesse Jackson. Lots of hon. Members from different parties were no doubt there, but if they look back, they will see that anyone involved in the anti-apartheid movement somehow managed to get on the Economic League blacklist."