LABOUR'S Deputy Leader has hit back after Britain's leading black campaigner warned institutional racism was blocking the rise of a British Barack Obama.

Trevor Phillips, a former Labour member of the London Assembly, claimed that Labour was particularly bad at allowing black and other ethnic minority politicians to succeed.

But London MP Harriet Harman (Lab Camberwell and Peckham), Labour's Deputy Leader, claimed he was "simply wrong".

She said: "Barack Obama's campaign challenged pessimism and defied defeatism and said "yes we can" - and he made this happen.

"That's what we need to do here as well. We want to challenge the pessimism and defeatism which says Black and Asian people can't succeed in this country."

Labour MPs such as Diane Abbott (Hackney North) and Bernie Grant, the former Tottenham MP who died eight years ago, led the way in breaking down barriers, she claimed.

Mr Phillips is head of the Commission for Equalities and Human Rights and previously chaired the Commission for Racial Equality.

His comments, in an interview with The Times, came as Senator Obama's success in the US Presidential elections prompted debate about when Britain will have a black Prime Minister.

He was particularly critical of Labour, despite being a longstanding Labour supporter himself.

He said: "If Barack Obama had lived here I would be very surprised if even somebody as brilliant as him would have been able to break through the institutional stranglehold on power within the Labour Party."

Mr Phillips said the Conservatives had been more successful than Labour in recruiting black and ethnic minority candidates.

"They are less democratic. They are happier to impose candidates on the local parties."

Labour was dominated by "the trade unions, the socialist societies, the left intelligentsia, and until you get them to accept that they have got a responsibility to do something it is almost impossible for the party leadership to make progress."

Brent South MP Dawn Butler (Lab), one of the few black Ministers in the Commons, has announced she is backing a new campaign called Bernie's List, named after Bernie Grant, to elect more black and ethnic minority MPs.

She said: "Bernie's list is committed to a three-pronged strategy to elect Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) individuals: recruiting and funding viable candidates; helping them build and run effective campaign organizations; and mobilizing BAME voters to help elect progressive candidates across the nation.

"Let Barack Obama's victory not only herald a new dawn for the US, but for UK politics as well."

Brent East MP Sarah Teather (Lib Dem) has become the latest MP to applaud Senator Obama's election.

But she added: ""The real test of an Obama presidency, however, will be whether he can deliver the change that he has promised.

"The British Government should be pressurising Obama to commit to leaving Iraq, closing Guantánamo Bay, taking the lead on climate change and a renewed push for peace in the Middle East."

Related links: Labour Matters blog, Dawn Butler, Sarah Teather, Trevor Phillips interview.

Bookmark This:
                                       

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Write comment

Name

Website

Title

Comment

smaller | bigger

Subscribe via email (Registered users only)

Add Comment