Last week, Haringey Council voted in favour of a 75 per cent cut in youth services despite Lammy promising before the general election to provide better youth provision in the area if re-elected.
Campaigning group Save Haringey Youth Service claims that the youth service works with more than 4,400 teenagers across the borough and runs 13 youth centres as well as Haringey Youth Council. The group believes many of these projects will disappear as a result of the cuts.
Organisers met Lammy, the MP for Tottenham which is located in Haringey, in late January to discuss what steps he would take to protect youth services but claim he has done nothing to help. "You have yet to sign the early day motion 1013 to protect the youth services and we believe that you have no intention, like the rest of your Labour party colleagues, to help the youth of the borough," they say in an open letter to the MP.
They claim he is in danger of being branded "the Nick Clegg of Tottenham" for failing to stick to his pre-election pledge.
But Lammy said he had taken action: "I have written to Tim Loughton, the minister for youth services, requesting that he meets with me and representatives from Save Haringey Youth Services to see what additional funding the borough might be able to claim and I will continue to make the case to Haringey Council to reconsider its budget.
"We must be absolutely clear why the council has to make these cuts. The government is cutting over £80m from Haringey’s budget while wealthy, Liberal Democrat boroughs like Kingston-upon-Thames are being asked to cut just £13.4m this year. Eric Pickles is bringing his axe down on the most vulnerable and deprived communities in the country with a smile on his face."
