The Labor Party is in “deep trouble” with black voters, a former government adviser has warned, saying the party risks being seen as “accepting the normalization of racism”.
David Weaver, chair of Operation Black Vote (OBV), said the government’s plans to restrict juries would “increase, normalize and mainstream” racial disproportionality in the justice system and that black voters were saying: “We no longer know what the Labor Party stands for.”
In November, Keir Starmer promised to “tackle racism”. But “moral panic” over migration and slow progress to address racial pay gaps and the Windrush scandal meant sentiment was low, Weaver said.
“We are not happy,” he added. “When they are away from power, Labor will go with black communities. But the closer they are to power, the more they will return to their type. And we had real hopes that they would come to government.
“Even people who are reasonable and say, ‘It’s hard for a government to come in and take over what they’ve inherited,’ see a government that accepts the normalization of racism, (a government) that thinks, ‘Well, we don’t have to think about them, because we’re going to get their vote anyway.’”
Black voters were more likely than any other voter to back the Labor Party in 2024. But Weaver said the party risked losing support in marginal constituencies from black voters who felt the party was “embracing the normalization of racism”.
Weaver said there had been a “lack of urgency” in the Equality (Race and Disability) Bill, which proposes tackling pay gaps by making companies with more than 250 employees publish pay data.
He also warned that Labour’s plans to restrict jury trials would intensify disproportionality. “It is an attack on the democratic principle: there must be public oversight over state power, (or) the fundamental principles of democracy will be questioned,” he said.
“And there is the racial reality. We are disproportionately stopped and searched, arrested, charged and remanded, given longer sentences. Only 1% of judges in England and Wales are black. So if juries are replaced by judge-only trials, then what happens is overwhelmingly white.”
OBV has campaigned since 1996 to address racial disparities through greater black representation in public life and political participation, working with American civil rights leaders such as the late Reverend Jesse Jackson, whose funeral Weaver flew to this month.
In the United States, Black Americans who marched after the death of George Floyd in 2020 have shifted their attention to community organizing, self-care, education, business, and corporate boycotts, intentionally “taking a break” from mass protests, wary of state violence.
In the UK, Weaver said, attention was also shifting towards “meaningful” grassroots activism, as black voters felt “really let down by Labour” and “not inspired by any of the others”, meaning MPs would have to work harder to win black votes.
Weaver said that in the last general election, the non-partisan OBV had “a really difficult time persuading people who hadn’t registered to vote… I think Labor is in serious trouble.”
He added: “We are finding that our communities are thinking about what we can do at a local level to make a difference in our lives. In the past, when national elections were held, we could go into areas at short notice and mobilize communities on how their vote successfully makes a difference. We can’t do that anymore.
“Our new focus has been to work at a regional level, encouraging people to become councillors. We are looking at younger people, at leadership pathways, moving away from just trying to get people into parliament.”
In an era when a vocal minority of ethnic minority British politicians were enabling the far right, Weaver said she felt “representation without equity and ethical leadership is useless”.
He added: “There is now an almost deliberate level of ‘black aggregation,’ as we call it, meaning that the worst elements of institutionalized racism gain legitimacy because black people or people of color are doing it now.”
The Ministry of Justice has been contacted for comment.
