Hackney MP and residents speak out over £10m Thatcher funeral cost

Diane Abbott, MP for Hackney North & Stoke Newington

MP Diane Abbott and Hackney residents have slammed the decision to spend £10m of public money on Margaret Thatcher’s funeral.

Margaret Thatcher was deeply divisive during her tenure of office and so she is proving in death: heated controversy has flared over whether she should be honoured with all the pomp of a state-funded funeral or whether in an era of austerity a more modest affair would be appropriate.

Diane Abbott, MP for Hackney South and Stoke Newington, is firmly in the latter camp. She told the Citizen that the cost was an unjustifiable strain on the taxpayer’s purse whilst the public are being asked to tighten their belts: “It doesn’t seem right that at a time when my constituents in Hackney are battling with housing benefit changes that cost more than they save, tax credit changes, and things like the bedroom tax, for some of our poorest families to be digging into their pockets for this. It simply isn’t the moment of national unity, which parts of the Conservative Party would like it to be.”

Local residents have spoken out too.

Matthew Taylor

“I think it’s ridiculous; I think they should be doing more positive things with it like building houses. I didn’t think much of her at all – she kicked off her time in parliament by taking milk from children and that was just a taste of things to come.”

Matthew Taylor, Eleanor Road

Akeem

“It’s not right to spend that much money while you are asking some people to live on £53 a week. It will bring nothing to the economy and it’s a total waste for just one person. We can never get that money back. If I die today, I’m not going to get anything from the state for a funeral so why should one individual be given so much, despite the fact that she during her leadership she didn’t give out anything for free.”

Akeem, Clapton

Charlie

“Even though a lot of people have a lot of bad things to say about her, after all she was prime minister so to have a funeral with all the bells and whistles is to be expected. Her legacy is pretty mixed though, I can’t imagine many Irish people like myself are big fans of hers. Whichever way you look at it though, £10 million spent on anything is a lot of money – you could feed a lot of people with that.”

Charlie, Stoke Newington

Chantelle

“Thatcher did make changes to our economy – the Iron Lady paved the way for us today but there was a lot of negatives. I still remember having my milk taken away. The problem I have is taking the state’s money to bury her – right now the economy’s struggling, they’ve just taken away people’s benefits and housing and using that £10m for her funeral is just rubbing it in our face. I think it could be a big issue for a lot of people, and could be a cause for some trouble – we’ll have to wait and see the crowd’s reaction tomorrow.”

Chantelle, Homerton

“I feel that the price is barbaric. It could go towards a lot of things in the UK at the moment. It really is a lot of money for a funeral. It’s a bit dramatic. That could have funded the Education Maintenance Allowance for instance – in Hackney, there’s lots of college students from underprivileged backgrounds and they could really use the money. Instead of thinking about what should be done, the Coalition Government has just gone crazy.”

Chaima, Tottenham

“£10 million for a funeral for anyone is too much money, especially nowadays. Under Thatcher, Britain became a very shallow, greedy society. It was very difficult to like her as a person because she was so strident and unreasonable.”

Sean, Walthamstow

Stellina MaCarthy. Photograph: George Steptoe

“I think the main problem is that the press keep going on about it and I’m really not in favour of that. People keep hearing about it [the £10m cost] but it doesn’t make any difference to me. I wasn’t a lover of Thatcher but I think the press have gone on about it too much and given it too much publicity. They should just let it go.”

Stellina MacArthy, Amhurst Road