I read the report by Shami Chakrabarti into alleged racism in the Labour Party over the weekend. It’s a good report and an interesting read for a number of reasons – but I was looking for lessons for our Party.
What particularly struck me was that right upfront she explains why she joined the Labour Party as soon as she was appointed to lead the Inquiry. She states that she has always supported and voted for the Labour Party but that her various jobs (Civil Servant and then Director of Liberty) required her to be non-Party political. She goes on to say that Labour is however the natural home for anybody concerned about human rights, that all significant legislative improvements in human rights in this country have happened on Labour’s watch, and that Labour has consistently been the first Party to accommodate immigrant voices and to achieve significant support among successive waves of immigrants -whether they be Jewish, Irish, BAME.
Of course she also mentions some of the terrible legislation which was introduced by Labour Governments.
Yet according to the testimony received by my Inquiry and published by various contributors online, there have also been incidences of overt antisemitism, Islamophobia and other forms of racism in the Party over the years. There has been occasional resort to disparaging ethnic stereotyping (including but not exclusively of Jewish people) and even racially discriminatory legislation in the form of the Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1968 designed to prevent East African Asians from coming to the United Kingdom.
The years following the Twin Towers atrocity in New York in September 2001 and the London bombings of July 2005 saw the Labour Government’s support for the War on Terror at home and abroad. The Iraq War, punishment without charge or trial and the domestic extremism agenda left many British Muslims feeling suspect and alienated in their natural political home.
The only Home Secretary who I have ever admired in office was Roy Jenkins who produced a raft of liberal measures – at that time in the Labour Party but later in his more natural home as a Lib Dem. James Callaghan was responsible for the above mentioned Commonwealth Immigrants Act, David Blunkett introduced some of the worst limitations on civil liberties when he was Home Secretary, and I remember Alan Johnson most for his determination to send an Asperger’s sufferer to the US to stand trial. Going back to the 60’s, the failure of Wilson and Callaghan to recognise and deal with the discrimination against Catholics in Norther Ireland arguably led to the explosion of anger and the “troubles” that followed for nearly 30 years.
People with human rights concerns might feel that Labour has a better chance of being in government and so it is best to support them. If Shami has chosen Labour for that reason then this is very disappointing for Liberal Democrats who admire her – we even voted for her as Liberal Voice of the year in 2007!
Anecdotally, I hear young people in particular saying that Labour is the natural home for people who are concerned about human rights at home and abroad. During the 2015 General Election they deserted us – partly because of tuition fees but also because we had nothing really to say to them. My impression of new members in my local association, who have joined since Brexit, is that internationalism and human rights are high up their list of priorities. The even greater flood of new members to the Labour Party appears to be in part influenced by similar concerns.
We have a Conservative government that shows careless regard for civil rights at home, that is only mildly critical of the human rights abuses of those to whom we sell arms – Israel, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain etc – and that is still leaving unaccompanied children in the Calais jungle in spite of Tim Farron’s best efforts. We have a Labour Party in disarray and with a fairly bad track record on human rights issues at home and abroad. This presents a real need and an opportunity for the Party that says the right things on most human rights issues – to be clearly and consistently out in front and in a joined up way. Sadly that’s not the case at present and the upcoming Conference Agenda doesn’t really tackle human rights or internationalism at all.
* John Kelly is vice-chair of Liberal Democrat Friends of Palestine
