Labour needs to speak the language of ethnic minorities if it wants to win 2020

What does 20% mean to you? On it’s own it is nothing – a mere solitary figure – but when put into context of the general election it’s the ethnic minority swing from Labour to Conservatives. It shows that the Labour Party have completely missed the messages we should be delivering to the ethnic minority communities across Britain. We’ve totally missed it on the economy, mental health and immigration, remaining as committed and steadfast towards the descriptor “party machine” than ever before.

Our economic message is, quite frankly, messed up. If aspiration is a choice then what is the counter? If ever a dichotomy could be so false, what self respecting Labour supporter has anything but aspiration? I’m sure the LGBT refugee from as far afield Pakistan or Nigeria aspires to live in a liberal and tolerant society where they can get simply get on in life, I’m also sure the Roma migrant who begs on the street aspires for a stable and secure home and a job to get by.

The party failed to engage the community in it’s potential strongholds with a decent narrative on anti-austerity, small business or Labour relations. As we all know very well, the Conservative’s hallowed “long term economic plan” was somewhat toned down by a Liberal Democrat presence but still kicked those who were already down . Those made most vulnerable from austerity were manipulated with a false portrayal that we were all in it together. If this is true, then I’m sure those in the revolving door of the mental health system failed to get the memo. An 8% cut to services worth £600 million while community mental health referrals go up  20 per-cent and Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services are not fit for purpose.

The elephant in the room? Schizophrenia is often diagnosed in the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic community (BAME), particularly amongst men, and as the crippling effects of austerity continue rates of depression are set to soar. But with an ever-shrinking mental health provision, people in the community are at risk of slipping through the net even before getting a proper diagnosis. In 2015 Britain, BAME youth are often at risk of not addressing potential mental health issues due to the extremely high levels of stigma and lack of empathy in the community.

The debate on our equality agenda is as depressingly banal as it is a tick box exercise, it has become starkly apparent that the party’s inertia to act any further than researching pay gaps and implementing equality ratios serves nothing but to further alienate us as a party from the very people we seek to represent.

Our manifesto commitments on women’s equality and the current debate from the leadership ballot shows how far removed and out of touch on BAME issues the party has truly become: No mention on the cuts to domestic violence services and shelters. In Coventry, the local Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre could no longer continue to provide it’s services to women in a community where 1/3 are BAME.

Prior to the election, Labour’s strong commitment on tackling violence against women was impressive. But I was uninspired by a lack of will to so much as acknowledge that a significant majority of domestic violence victims from the BAME community face more specific forms of aggression such as honour based violence, Female Genital Mutilation and that from multiple aggressors. This all made worse by the aggressor threatening deportation if the woman is unfortunate enough to have immigration issues.

Labour’s debate and subsequent narrative on immigration has been shockingly narrow. Afraid to address the issue, only to release a mug with “Controls on Immigration” emblazoned across it. The party made its commitment to recruit more border officers and prevent exploitation of migrant labour. Firstly – the latter is impossible in the neoliberal free movement system we have in the European Union. Secondly- I would rather see more enforcement and back end staff employed than officers at Heathrow. The priority should be to employ enough staff to ensure those in the immigration system are where they are supposed to be and to ensure casework is processed as possible. An extra officer at the border isn’t much use if the people they set out to serve are only to be kept in the likes of Harmondsworth or Yarls Wood in what are known to be quite nasty conditions for the best part of up to half a decade.

If only the party set out to commit itself to creating a more effective border control and allowed individuals awaiting decisions to live in more open conditions in the interim. The mind boggles at how migrants can be kept in more secure and deplorable conditions than a convicted criminal in a “Category D” open prison.

If Labour is to win in 2020, it needs to start talking the language of ethnic minorities by setting a narrative that will connect the party once again with those it seeks to represent. Such a process needs examining not only by the grassroots in Constituency Labour Parties and the youth structures but by those at the higher echelons of the party in our policy forums and National Executive Committee. The finger rightly needs to be firmly pointed inwards while BAME Labour re-examines it’s own purpose and ambitions within the party. Far from a blame game, this is a debate that needs to be held across the party machine.