Reed takes riot compensation to the top

This week, Steve Reed MP, took Croydon’s forgotten riot victims to meet with Labour leader Ed Miliband, to discuss the Government’s failure to pay compensation to people who suffered at the hands of the 2011 riots.

It is now two years since businesses were burnt to the ground, shops were looted, and homes were destroyed.

At the time, the Prime Minister and the Mayor of London walked along the devastated London Road in the central part of Croydon and promised people that they would not be forgotten and that, while the state had failed to protect them during the riots, it would stand by them as they tried to rebuild their lives.

Steve was accompanied by Charlene Munro, whose home was burnt down in the riots and who lost all her possessions. She was forced to move with her young son into emergency accommodation but had to rely on borrowed money to get by. She applied to the Metropolitan Police for £6,000 in compensation from the Riot Damages Act to cover part of what she’d lost. The Met only agreed to pay out £2,345, not enough to cover the debts that Charlene built up after the riots. Charlene was forced to start applying for bankruptcy.

Steve Reed MP said; “It’s simply no good the Prime Minister standing up in the House of Commons and promising to help victims if that help never comes through.  I wanted Ed Miliband to hear directly from the people who are still suffering why a future Labour Government needs to act to secure the support these people need and deserve.  I know Ed cares deeply about this issue and that is why he was more than happy to listen to people impacted by the riots, while the Prime Minister simply offers hollow promises.”