The funeral of Labour MP Bernie Grant is to take place next Tuesday with a multi-cultural celebration of his life, it was announced today. The funeral of Labour MP Bernie Grant is to take place next Tuesday with a multi-cultural celebration of his life, it was announced today.
The black rights champion, who suffered a heart attack and died aged 56 on Saturday, is to be commemorated with a ceremony at London’s Alexandra Palace.The details of the arrangements came as speculation mounted that his wife Sharon – who was also his personal assistant – is to stand for his seat.A spokesman for the family said she was “very flattered by the suggestion but at the moment is too busy to consider anything other than the funeral arrangements.”However, it is known friends of Mr Grant are urging her to consider standing and Steve King, former deputy Leader of Haringey Council who worked with Mr Grant for 20 years, said: “I for one think she should.”Mr Grant’s office said the whole community was welcome at Tuesday’s funeral and there will be tributes from all walks of life interspersed with music.He said: “The occasion will be a multi-cultural celebration of his life. Bernie was a man of the people and his family would like everyone to share in remembering him.”Before the funeral there will be a cortege passing some key sites of Mr Grant’s life.It will leave Haringey Civic Centre where he was the first black leader of a local authority in Europe, passing his Tottenham offices and then go into the Broadwater Farm Estate where he was chairman of the local community centre and worked to improve relations after the riots of the 1980s.Mr Grant’s body will also lie at Freedom Hall, Tottenham Green Leisure Centre between 11am and 4pm on Sunday to allow people to pay their respects.. Michael Portillo, the shadow Chancellor, apologised to the House of Commons yesterday for failing to declare his link with an oil company when he spoke on petrol prices in a debate. Michael Portillo, the shadow Chancellor, apologised to the House of Commons yesterday for failing to declare his link with an oil company when he spoke on petrol prices in a debate.
Mr Portillo admitted he should have mentioned his work for the Kerr-McGee Corporation when a Labour MP lodged a complaint with the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, Elizabeth Filkin.He told MPs yesterday that he should have mentioned the connection when he spoke in a budget debate on March 27. “I made some remarks regarding the taxation of petrol without reminding the House that I have a registered interest as an adviser to an oil producing company.

It was an oversight for which I apologise to the House,” he said.Mr Portillo worked for the Kerr-McGee Corporation after he lost his Enfield Southgate seat in 1997, and continues to advise the company. He is paid between £5,000 and £10,000 a year for the work and also earns between £10,000 and £15,000 as an adviser to the Probyn Group, which finances renewable energy projects.In the Register of Members Interests, he says he advises Kerr-McGee on international affairs as part of a wider agreement, but Parliamentary rules also require him to mention the link in relevant debates.Kerr-McGee Corporation is based in Oklahoma in the United States and has assets of more than £4bn. Its two main business activities are in oil and gas and in titanium dioxide pigment, which is used in paint, plastics, paper and many other consumer products.Chris Leslie, Labour MP for Shipley, made a formal complaint about Mr Portillo’s failure to declare after Denis MacShane, MP for Rotherham, raised the issue on the floor of the House last week. Yesterday he said he still believed Mr Portillo should resign.Mr Leslie said: “He is working for a company that profits from petrol sales and shadowing duty and taxation issues. It is inappropriate for him to have that kind of consultancy job and I would suggest that he should resign from it.”Several members of the Shadow Cabinet have jobs outside the House of Commons, some relating directly to their portfolios.Last year, Ms Filkin found that Mr Portillo’s predecessor, Francis Maude, had unintentionally broken the rules when he proposed a new clause for the Government’s Finance Bill relating to the retail industry At the time, Mr Maude was a director of Asda.. William Hague fuelled the political debate over race last night by warning that Britain faced a “massive influx of bogus asylum-seekers”, in his swift rejection of an attempt by Downing Street to lower the temperature on the issue. William Hague fuelled the political debate over race last night by warning that Britain faced a “massive influx of bogus asylum-seekers”, in his swift rejection of an attempt by Downing Street to lower the temperature on the issue.
Hours after Tony Blair’s spokesman appealed to parties to be careful about the language used when talking of asylum-seekers, the Tory leader made clear the controversial issue would remain a central plank in his party’s campaigning.And as the parties clashedover asylum, Millbank launched a personal attack on Simon Hughes, the Liberal Democrats’ home affairs spokesman, who yesterday reported the Tories and Labour to the Commission for Racial Equality.

Mr Hughes said ministers had broken pledges to the Refugee Council last year that they would not describe asylum- seekers as “bogus”.Mr Hague told a fund-raising dinner that Ken Livingstone, the independent candidate for mayor of London, would be “lethal for London on bogus asylum-seekers.” He said:”Genuine refugees are suffering most at the hands of a system on the verge of collapse because of the massive influx of bogus asylum-seekers who come here because the Government has made Britain such a soft touch.”Tory aides said Mr Hague’s decision to make the speech, despite being accused of “playing the race card”, was a sign he would not be “scared off”. Tory strategists believe their criticism has struck a chord with the public.Downing Street blamed the rising number of asylumseekers on the “absolute shambles of a system” Labour inherited from the Tories. Mr Blair’s spokesman said: “The Prime Minister would never, ever allow the Labour Party – to use that unpleasant, unfortunate phrase – to play the race card in relation to asylum- seekers. The Prime Minister’s view is that in this area you do have to be very careful about the language you use.”Despite the appeal, there were angry exchanges in theCommons between Jack Straw, the Home Secretary, and Ann Widdecombe, the Tory spokeswoman who has led the attacks on the Government’s record. Miss Widdecombe told MPs the large majority of people who come to this country to seek asylum were “bogus” – a description she said Mr Blair had used five times recently.”The asylum system has deteriorated to unbelievable and unprecedented levels in this country since this Government took power,” she said. “The message went out to the rest of the world that Britain is a soft touch.”Mr Straw, accusing Miss Widdecombe of a “rant”, said: “Whilst we do wish to bear down very strongly, as we are doing, on the numbers of unfounded asylum applications, the simple fact of the matter is that no one can know whether an application is genuine or not until the claim has properly been examined.”Attempts by Labour and the Liberal Democrats to turn their guns on the Tories were scuppered by a Liberal-Labour row. Ministers were furious that Mr Hughes bracketed Labour with the Tories in his complaint to the Commission.