Labour’s all white leader and deputy leader candidates!

There was some recent research that received little attention in the national news, (see link below), but if the Labour party were smart its findings  should have raised serious alarm bells for them.

Professor Richard Webber from the Kings College London, and former head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, Trevor Phillips, undertook a study to look at BME voting patterns and how that might look in the not too distant future. Their analysis suggests that by 2050 more than half of Labour voters will be non white.

These findings come from the fact that the Labour party increased its share of the vote in big urban areas.

But is the Labour party listening?  Are they projecting diversity ?Well not if you look at both who’s standing, and what issues these candidates are talking about.
Both for the Labour party leadership contest, and the battle for Deputy Leader - all the contestants are white. Of course we’ve written much about Chuka Umunna standing and then withdrawing, but others such as David Lammy, received little support from party colleagues, as did Rushanara Ali, in her bid to become deputy Leader.

Perhaps even more importantly, looking at the line up of most of these contenders, the question has to be asked, when did you ever hear them stand up for tackling racism?

For example, the present frontrunner for the leadership contest Yvette Cooper was repeatedly out played by the Home Secretary Theresa May when it came to the issue of ‘Stop and Search’. It was almost as though this was not a priority for Cooper. It has been for many Black youths.

For far too long, the Labour party has taken the BME vote for granted, and whilst they still receive the lion’s share of the BME vote-more than 50% , the Conservatives made deep inroads into their vote, securing more than a million BME voters. The outcome ensured the PM got the majority Government he so desperately wanted.

Truth is, the Labour party has got to stop relying on the historical precedence that the first and second generation BME individuals voted Labour, and that therefore the next generation will continue. They won’t.

If we’re not recognised by the party as being good enough for the top jobs, and if our issues are not being championed, then the result will be that our communities cannot be relied upon to support the Labour party in future elections.

It is this fundamental slide the party needs to address. Will it? Well, that remains to be seen.

http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/the-browning-of-labour-and-its-...

Simon Woolley