How Labour policy will be shaped by Doreen Lawrence’s work on racism

The review that Keir Starmer commissioned from Baroness Doreen Lawrence back in April has been released today. Exploring the disproportionate impact of the coronavirus crisis on Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities, the Labour peer has used quantitative data, written submissions and conversations over Zoom to conclude that the virus has both “exposed” structural racism in the UK and itself “fuelled” racism. This is evident in the way that police forces are up to seven times more likely to fine BAME people than white people. And Lawrence concludes that the government simply has “not done enough to protect people ahead of the second wave”.

The Lawrence Review sets out 20 recommendations (as she explains in the video posted by Starmer this morning, “you don’t need to have 100 recommendations, you need to have some really strong ones”). These proposals include suspending ‘no recourse to public funds’ – the immigration condition that stops many migrants from accessing government support – during the Covid crisis. This is something that Labour has committed to before in the pandemic, as Jonathan Reynolds showed in his LabourList piece. But a new policy is that Labour supports initiating a review of ‘NRPF’, specifically its impact on public health and health inequalities.

The other key aim with this report is that Labour does not want it to sit on a shelf and gather dust. The recommendations are both immediate, with measures that could be taken by the government within weeks such as ensuring that employer risk assessments are published, and more long-term, including the end of the ‘hostile environment’ and implementing a race equality strategy. In the second category goes the big new commitment to be launched alongside the review: Starmer says Labour in government will introduce a ‘Race Equality Act’.

The contents of this report will be built upon over the coming years by Lawrence and the party more broadly to determine what goes into the landmark piece of legislation. I’m also told that the Labour peer will be closely involved in determining how the work that went into this review and the developments that follow translate into concrete policy for Labour’s next general election manifesto. As the party’s race relations adviser, the leadership plans for Doreen Lawrence’s contributions to be central to the policy platform of Starmer’s Labour – and a key figure shaping priorities in government if he succeeds in getting the keys to No 10.