Labour to the rescue! All those opposed to the crazy plan of Director of RBG Kew, Richard Deverell, to move the Kew Herbarium to a business park near Reading, will celebrate recent good news. 

A series of five critical questions were made in the House of Commons about the proposed move to the government’s DEFRA team (Kew’s trustees are appointed by DEFRA). The questions were fired off by the shadow DEFRA team, likely to be the new government before the end of 2024. Presented by Toby Perkins MP, the questions from the opposition clearly signal concerns about the plan, estimated to cost the taxpayer an unnecessary £200 million, but seemingly supported by the current masters of DEFRA.

Labour have asked if the government will: 1. publish the business case for the move as considered by the Kew trustees; 2. if an assessment has been made of the level of damage and loss posed to the contents of the herbarium by the relocation; 3. the likelihood of other countries asking for repatriation of specimens in the event of the move; 4. for estimates of the energy costs for the move; 5. If the Equality Impact Assessment for the move can be published.

The repatriation issue came to a head in an article in the Times interviewing a renowned African botanist who suggested that repatriation to countries of origin be considered in view of the proposed herbarium move. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/kew-herbarium-row-plant-specimens-should-be-returned-to-countries-of-origin-09rtbwsjt#:~:text=Professor%20Muthama%20Muasya%20from%20the,country%20of%20origin%20or%20shared

To read the questions from Toby Perkins (and limp answers from DEFRA) yourself, go to:  https://members.parliament.uk/member/3952/writtenquestions#expand-1679501

This development follows Steve Reed, the shadow Secretary of State for the Environment’s challenging open letter on the Kew Herbarium move to his opposite number Steve Barclay in December. We take these as positive signs that the shadow DEFRA team are not supportive of the proposed move and will cancel any DEFRA support for it when they come into power.

If you live in the UK, please consider raising this issue with your MP.

Here is how to do this in 3 steps:

1. Go to https://www.writetothem.com/ , enter your postcode and click on the displayed MP name.

2. In your own words, keeping it short and clear, tell your MP how the planned move of Kew Herbarium would affect you & ask your MP to raise this with the DEFRA minister.

3. Fill in your email, address and name and click on SEND.

Please, help us getting to 20,000 names by signing and sharing the link to this petition https://chng.it/vsDT2xmKXN to avoid catastrophe and Keep the Kew Herbarium at Kew!

For further updates also follow us on Twitter (X), Facebook or Instagram @KewKeepers. 

Please help us stop this crazy plan

Curator Botanist savekewherbarium@gmail.com