Heathrow campaigner barred from US was on secret blacklist

 
27 February 2013

John Stewart, a leading campaigner against Heathrow expansion, has found his name on a “blacklist”, fuelling claims that such secret files have been more widely used than thought.

Mr Stewart, 63, chairman of pressure group Hacan (Heathrow Association for the Control of Aircraft Noise), believes it could explain why he was barred from the US in 2011 with no reason given.

Mr Stewart, who is from Clapham, has no criminal convictions, does not belong to a trade union and worked in retail before taking up peaceful campaigning. When his plane landed in New York he was escorted off it by armed guards and sent home. He had planned a speaking tour with fellow campaigners.

Mr Stewart has been told by the GMB union that he was on a blacklist previously thought to have only contained names of alleged “troublemakers” and trade unionists from the building industry. “It could explain why I was refused entry to America in 2011,” he said. “The list seems to have been around for some years. It’s worrying that somebody like me, without convictions, can find myself on a blacklist like this.”

Zac Goldsmith, the Conservative MP and environmentalist, said he was astonished: “If John Stewart has been refused entry to the States because of his Heathrow campaign, the tolerance threshold must be astonishingly low. He is superbly effective, but it’s hard to think of a more civilised campaigner.”

The list was found in 2009 when the Information Commissioner’s Office, which enforces data protection rules, raided an organisation called the Consulting Association in Droitwich, Worcestershire. It has now closed.

Most of the 3,213 people on the list were construction workers and the database was used to vet staff for the industry. It included details about workers’ personal relationships, trade union activity and employment history. But the GMB estimated 200 names were of green campaigners. Tamsin Omond, of Climate Rush, was also on the list.

Alternative explanations for the US barring Mr Stewart could be that he did not have a work visa, and was travelling with a man who claimed to have superglued himself to Gordon Brown. The US Embassy would not comment. GMB general secretary Paul Kenny said: “The blacklisting scandal now widens to include abuses of basic freedoms like the right to travel abroad. Some on the list never worked in construction, so who put them on it and why?”

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