Labour’s race adviser Baroness Lawrence accuses Keir Starmer of ‘not listening’ to her

Sir Keir Starmer has been accused of not listening to the Labour party’s adviser on race relations.

Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon, who is the mother of murdered black teenager Stephen Lawrence, is reported to have told a private meeting of Labour’s ethnic minority MPs and peers on Tuesday: “I wish Keir listened to me.”

It is alleged Baroness Lawrence complained of “gatekeepers” around the Labour leader who had prevented her work,The Times reported, and said she no longer knew how to respond to complaints about the party from black and minority ethnic voters.

Her remarks — at a behind-closed-doors meeting of the black, Asian and minority ethnic section of the parliamentary Labour Party — come amidmounting disquiet about the treatment of Black and Asian Labour MPs and voters including long-standing investigation into Diane Abbott, Britain’s first black female MP.

Baroness Lawrence is also alleged to have suggested that Sir Keir needed to spend more time visiting diverse communities and churches with black congregations.

She is reported to have questioned the party’s decision to scale back a conference at which Sir Keir had been due to unveil plans for new race equality legislation last month.

The Independent reported at the time that the meeting was scaled back at the eleventh hour amid security concerns, understood to be a pro-Palestine protest, and as key MPs vowed to stay away from the event.

Baroness Lawrence was appointed as Labour’s race relations adviser in 2020 after she praised him for his role in securing justice for her family after the highly publicised racist murder of her son, Stephen, in south London in the 1990s.

Her first duty as a Labour party adviser was to investigate the impact of the Covid pandemic in ethnic minority communities.

The pair have since made several public appearances since Sir Keir became Labour leader, including launching a report on Labour’s proposed race equality act, which the party says will extend full equal pay rights to black, Asian, ethnic minority and disabled workers for the first time.

Baroness Lawrence told the Times that she did not doubt Sir Keir’s commitment to fighting racism. She said: “Of course I’m always going to push the party to do more as the fight for equality is never done, but I’ve known Keir for years and I’ve no doubts about his commitment to equality and fighting racism. That’s why I’ve been proud to work with Labour to develop their plans for a new race equality act.”

Several Labour sources have previously told The Independent that the party needs to “get its own house in order” by addressing racial discrimination within its ranks as highlighted in the damning Forde report. That inquiry uncovered a “hierarchy of racism” within Labour, with many saying they felt the “overwhelmingly white” Labour Party was an unwelcoming place for people of colour.

Sir Keir apologised for the findings but Mr Forde has since criticised the speed at which Labour has implemented his recommendations for improving how it dealt with sexism, racism, bullying and factionalism.

As of December, only 154 of the 165 proposals had been implemented.

Ms Abbott had the whip suspended last April after writing a letter suggesting Jewish people are not subjected to the same racism as some other minorities.

She immediately apologised and said the letter published in The Observer had been an “initial draft” sent by mistake. But the Labour leadership have not yet restored the whip.

The Independent has been told that Ms Abbott was offered the Labour whip back but refused because she would have had to undergo antisemitism training,

It comes after the Labour leader denounced alleged remarks made by Tory donor Frank Hester that Ms Abbott made him “want to hate all black people”.

The ordeal led some within and outside of the party to call for the Hackney MP to have the whip restored, which Sir Keir has so far refused.

Baroness Lawrence and the Labour party have been approached for comment