On the debate over Labour’s response to the Colston statue removal

The Prime Minister has released a video to share his views on the Black Lives Matter protests, which in the UK saw the statue of slave trader Edward Colston torn down by protesters. Boris Johnson acknowledges a “depth of emotion” and “feeling of injustice”, agrees that politicians “can’t ignore” certain realities and reassures activists that they are “right to say Black Lives Matter”. But he goes on to condemn “those who flout the rules on social distancing”, preparing to blame activists for a rise in the coronavirus infection rate – as if he hasn’t just unlocked without first putting in place a properly functioning test, track and trace system. And as if 10 Downing Street advisers are not held to different standards.

Labour’s response to the Colston statue being pulled down has been the subject of fierce debate within the party. Nobody expected Keir Starmer to make a media appearance with ‘ACAB’ written across his forehead. Nobody expected the leader to quote his younger self, who was interested in discussing “the question of the role the police should play, if any, in civil society”. What Starmer did do, of course, is tell LBC listeners that the statue should have been removed “properly, with consent”. He argued that “nobody should condone lawlessness”, although it “should have been taken down a long, long time ago”. He followed the mainstream line that appealing to authorities is preferable to direct action, as you would expect.

The substance of the comments were to be expected, but the way in which the message was communicated did fail to recognise that people had tried to get the statue removed or altered through conventional political means for many years without success. It also may have been useful to note that “consent” was never obtained from the black community for the statue, and that much of this discussion assumes black people should “live in spaces that reproduce trauma”, as argued by Sabrina Huck in her latest column. The comments make clear that the priority of this new weekly LBC slot is not particularly to challenge mainstream narratives, but to present Keir Starmer as a Prime Minister-in-waiting.

This is entirely natural for a leader who wants to restore the image of Labour and present it as a party that is ready to win the next election. And this example is representative of a dynamic that many Labour members will take time to get used to after Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership (which did not question the role of the police either, but was more accepting of frontbenchers freestyling on controversial topics and would likely have struggled more with this debate). It is also quite right that remarks such as those on LBC are debated: the tensions between establishment and movement-building politics are entirely appropriate for a democratic socialist party such as Labour. As a critical friend, LabourList exists to accommodate that whole spectrum of debate while supporting the leadership.

Luke Pollard, Shadow Environment Secretary, has today called on the government to take action on animal cruelty amid concerns that there has been a spike during lockdown. This is a timely reminder that I will be in conversation with the shadow cabinet member at 6pm tonight: just revisit this LabourList post at that time to join us for the online event. Sign up to LabourList’s morning email for everything Labour, every weekday morning.