‘Not one high court judge; not one black chief constable or permanent secretary. Not one black army officer above the rank of colonel. And not one Asian either… Not a record of pride for the British parliament that there are so few black and Asian MPs. I am against positive discrimination. But there is no harm in reminding ourselves of how much negative discrimination there is.’
These words heralded a new Labour government, a new era and a new confidence. In his maiden conference speech as the country’s new premier, Tony Blair delivered what was unquestionably the most inspiring and bold passage on race equality made by any British prime minister.
After eighteen years of Tory rule, which began with race riots in Brixton and Toxteth and ended with Home Secretary Michael Howard rejecting an inquiry into the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence, to hear such words uttered by our new Prime Minister was breath-taking stuff.
But now, as we approach the sixth anniversary of that speech, many feel that the Labour leadership has lost its appetite for race equality, and are questioning its delivery to date.
This Labour government has achieved more on race than any other government in history. Yet there is a genuine feeling that complacency has now set in or, worse still, that elements of government are applying the brakes on race for fear of the much-vaunted white backlash. So what is the actual record of the Labour government since May 1997?
Well, we now have our first ethnic minority minister – in fact, we have four, with Paul Boateng, the country’s first black cabinet minister, now joined by Baroness Amos, the country’s first black woman cabinet minister.
We have a threefold increase in ethnic minority peers, including the first Muslim, Sikh and Chinese peers. Even fortress Civil Service has been breached, with the first ethnic minority permanent secretary at the Department for International Development.
Labour has re-instated Section 11 funding for ethnic minority school achievement, which the Conservatives pledged to abolish. The ‘primary purpose rule’ – seen as the mother of all racist immigration policies – has been scrapped. And a Crime and Disorder Act with a racially aggravated violence element has produced some 3,000-plus prosecutions to date.
And, of course, it took a Labour home secretary to initiate the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry, leading to the Race Relations Amendment Act – the most powerful race legislation seen on these shores, requiring 40,000-plus public authorities to publish race equality schemes. This is the kind of public accountability that most of us never dared dream of, let alone thought we’d witness in the first term of a Labour government.
But all is not perfect. Despite success on the social policy side, substantial challenges remain. Far too many ethnic minority children still under-achieve and ethnic minority unemployment is up to four times higher than the average. Asylum seekers are vilified in the media, whilst race attacks remain a reality – and on the increase in areas where the BNP is making unprecedented electoral gains.
And, despite being light years ahead of other parties, we are still failing to ensure a representative and inclusive democracy.
The Welsh assembly and the Scottish parliament are ‘all-white’ affairs, which will no doubt please the BNP, but ought to agitate us more that it appears to at present. And for the Commons to be truly representative, we need a five-fold increase in ethnic minority MPs. In local government and the Lords, we need a four-fold increase.
Following the recent report by Labour’s ethnic minority engagement taskforce, the NEC last month endorsed an ethnic minority strategy. Collectively these represent the most far-reaching options considered by any UK political party in a bid to ensure that politics, policy and public life are more reflective.
However, good intentions alone will not deliver. In his speech, the Prime Minister talked about opposing positive discrimination. But Labour has, quite rightly, introduced legislation to allow for all-women shortlists. Such a move has inevitably and understandably given rise to a clamour from activists for all-black shortlists.
As chair of Labour’s Ethnic Minority Forum, I have my reservations. First, enabling legislation would be required, raising problems such as how we define ‘ethnic minority’ (some communities, for example, are not under-represented). Second, all-black shortlists could be divisive, potentially setting one community against another. Third, the use of all-black shortlists in areas of high ethnic minority concentration would simply ghettoise able and aspiring black and Asian politicians by signalling that they are only fit to represent ‘their own people’.
Labour should instead be tackling the democratic deficit by setting ambitious and transparent targets for ethnic minority representation and by building consensus within local parties.
As well as the moral imperative for race equality, there is also a hard political imperative. The reality is that we have enjoyed unparalleled support from Britain’s ethnic minorities over three decades and, with rapid demographic changes, many of our innercity seats are now reliant on this support. Our failure to consolidate this support – which was around 85 percent at the 1997 election – will prove fatal. As history teaches us, taxation without representation is a recipe for failure.
No one can question our commitment to equality, but we cannot rest on our laurels. In short, a lot done and, yes, I’m afraid, a lot left to do.