‘Let’s spark our political imagination – especially in BAME Labour’

Battered, beaten and bruised. Like many Labour activists up and down the country, the local elections left a bitter taste and emotions are running high.  You only need to open up the news to see how that’s playing out. But it’s when this Party feels at its lowest, that we must begin to spark our political imagination, especially within the BAME movement, and shape a clear direction of the future of the Labour Party.

It was a tough set of local elections and many members across our capital, in Scotland and Wales are wondering how we have let an unprecedented and damning set of results occur. The next few months will see much back-and-forth between activists, reflecting on what could’ve been – and rightly so. But the conversation that will interest most is one around national government, and whether its strategy and political communication of its vision – as well as failure to manage events domestically – incentivised those who once crossed the red rosette ballot box with pride, to turn to alternatives of “hope” and “national security”.

Many of these debates will turn to dust, many will lead to rogue ideas being deemed acceptable, though as uncertainty lingers around the future of our Party’s leadership, a silver lining emerges for ethnic minorities within the Labour movement as we begin to have a conversation about our role within this Party. In the midst of the chaos, is a moment for us within the BAME community to shape the future direction of a party that for too long has taken the ethnic minority vote (and consequently its members) for granted, especially within the Black community.

READ MORE: ‘Labour represents the sort of people for whom trade unions were created or it represents no one’

And why is that so? Fundamentally, it boils down to arrogance and self-entitled psychological attitudes towards BAME communities. But what I have come to find from spending months on the doorstep, is the fear of change injected into our community by those who seek to divide us. A fear that sudden change will take away from the little we retain, despite all of what we had fought for. Our community, whilst hesitant, votes for our Party as it offers an ounce of stability within the volatile lived experience of ethnic minorities across Britain. A pretty funny analysis when you come to realise the motivations of our communities cannot rely on continuation but rather radical change of our systems.

Pre-local election, in a sit-down interview with Sky News, the Prime Minister offered a substantive critique of the current state of society, stating that Government must move away from the “status quo”. Critique of the current state of society has been missing within this administration’s communication strategy. For too long, we had set out good and coherent policies yet continuously found ourselves struggling to explain the ‘why’: why we lifted the two-child limit; why we gave private renters greater security; why we gave workers the biggest boost to their rights in a generation. 

Yet in a single sentence the PM was able to convey his ‘why’ and what drives his political motivations. And since he is not the only one to have done so. With the by-election today  we’ve seen Burnham allude to this idea of moving away from the current status quo and the shakeup needed in Westminster to do so throughout the campaign.

For decades, moving away from the “status quo” has been a key component in the BAME movement. In 1999, we saw the then Member of Parliament for Bethnal Green and Bow, Oona King, and the late Member of Parliament for Tottenham, Bernie Grant, both raise in the Commons the issues of institutional racism within our society, off the back of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry. I also believe the conversation around the “status quo” accepts that the current system has been perfectly designed to keep those poorest in our society divided, both economically and socially. 

The conversation is thought-provoking and demands us not only to critique the state of our society but use our political imagination to imagine our communities in a way that we haven’t before. So, what if BAME members within the Labour Party decided to exercise their political imagination?

During the local elections, I went on a campaign tour across nine London boroughs supporting candidates from a range of diverse backgrounds to get elected/re-elected and serve our communities. 

Become a friend of LabourList and join our community. Our friends support our vital non-factional work and get access to exclusive content and events. 

During that time, BAME Labour had been revived from its death bed where it had been since 2018. The prospect of finally having a Labour society which truly represents ethnic minority communities is exciting. An opportunity to build a network that connects BAME members with leaders, debate on policy and form a coherent narrative that strives to earn the vote of every BAME group in our society. 

But I must be bluntly honest when I say, this must not be another tokenistic gesture from the Labour Party. This must be a cultural shift within our Party, ensuring that our communities are embedded in structural changes and designed through lived experiences. We must end external pressures to assimilate with dominant norms, to create an inclusive and comfortable environment within our Party. And create leaders who are trusted to deliver change that is felt throughout every community and neighbourhood in our country, and not simply for the appearance of diversity.

We’ve also seen in the past how other affiliated societies have fallen victim to infighting, and it is on us within the BAME Movement to remain disciplined under three foundations:

1.  Build an activist base to support BAME Labour candidates across the country
2. Grow and utilise political resources 
3. And most importantly, sustain a community focused approach to provide a space for both new and old members from BAME backgrounds to come together, to learn and grow within the Labour Party. 

Following these three foundations will not only allow the BAME movement to grow to heights we have not yet seen before, but finally take control and steer future national conversations and encourage our Party to exercise its political imagination to move away from the status quo – creating a society where opportunity is not defined by race or background, rather one where opportunity is entrenched in our customs.

From all the conversations I’ve had with members across my campaign tour, there is a hunger to move away from the status quo and an ambition to change the culture of our Party, so tokenism and symbolism is replaced with meaningful structural inclusion. And a desire to curate future leaders, who will take the national conversation to lengths that regains the support of BAME communities, so we avoid reliving the pain of these set of local election result. But for this to become a reality, the revived BAME Labour must step up, stay disciplined in the three foundations, and tackle these challenges head on.

Subscribe here to our daily newsletter roundup of Labour news, analysis and comment– and follow us on TikTok, Bluesky, WhatsApp, X and Facebook. You can also write to our editor to share your thoughts on our stories and share your own. The best letters are published every Sunday.

• • SHARE: If you have anything to share that we should be looking into or publishing about this story – or any other topic involving Labour– contact us (strictly anonymously if you wish) at [email protected].
  • SUBSCRIBE: Sign up to LabourList’s morning email here for the best briefing on everything Labour, every weekday morning.
  • BECOME A FRIEND: If you enjoyed this, why not consider becoming a Friend of LabourList? Help sustain our journalism, and of course Friends do get benefits…
  • PARTNER: If you or your organisation might be interested in partnering with us on sponsored events or projects, email [email protected].
  • ADVERTISE: If your organisation would like to advertise or run sponsored pieces on LabourList‘s daily newsletter or website, contact our exclusive ad partners Total Politics at [email protected].