{"id":465742,"date":"2026-03-09T10:26:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T10:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/465742\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T10:26:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T10:26:08","slug":"labour-in-deep-trouble-with-black-voters-operation-black-vote-chair-warns-labour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/465742\/","title":{"rendered":"Labour in \u2018deep trouble\u2019 with Black voters, Operation Black Vote chair warns | Labour"},"content":{"rendered":"

Labour is in \u201cdeep trouble\u201d with Black voters, a former government adviser has warned, saying the party is at risk of being seen as \u201caccepting the normalisation of racism\u201d.<\/p>\n

David Weaver, who is the chair of Operation Black Vote (OBV), said the government\u2019s plans to restrict juries<\/a> would \u201cheighten, normalise and embed\u201d racial disproportionality in the justice system and that Black voters were saying: \u201cWe don\u2019t know what Labour stands for any more.\u201d<\/p>\n

In November, Keir Starmer vowed to \u201cstand up to racism\u201d<\/a>. But the \u201cmoral panic\u201d over migration and slow progress on tackling racial pay gaps and the Windrush scandal meant sentiment was low, Weaver said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not happy,\u201d he added. \u201cWhen they\u2019re away from power, Labour will go alongside Black communities. But the closer their proximity to power, the more they revert to type. And we had real hopes of them coming into government.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven people that are being reasonable and saying: \u2018It\u2019s hard for a government coming in and taking over what they\u2019ve inherited\u2019, are seeing a government accepting the normalisation of racism, [a government] thinking: \u2018Well, we don\u2019t have to think about them, because we\u2019re going to get their vote anyway\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weaver: \u2018When they\u2019re away from power, Labour will go alongside Black communities. But the closer their proximity to power, the more they revert to type.\u2019 Photograph: Mark Waugh\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Black voters were more likely than any other voters<\/a> to back Labour in 2024. But Weaver said the party risked losing support in marginal constituencies from Black voters who felt the party was \u201caccepting the normalisation of racism\u201d.<\/p>\n

Weaver said there had been a \u201clack of urgency\u201d on the equality (race and disability) bill, which proposes tackling pay gaps by making companies with more than 250 staff publish salary data.<\/p>\n

He also warned that Labour\u2019s plans to restrict jury trials would intensify disproportionality. \u201cIt\u2019s an attack on the democratic principle \u2013 you\u2019ve got to have public oversight over state power, [or] the fundamental tenets of democracy are themselves challenged,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd there\u2019s the racial reality. We are disproportionately stopped and searched, arrested, charged and remanded, we are given longer sentences. Only 1% of judges in England and Wales are Black<\/a>. So if juries are replaced with judge-only trials, then what happens is overwhelmingly white.\u201d<\/p>\n

OBV has campaigned since 1996 to tackle racial disparities through greater Black representation in public life and political participation, working with US civil rights leaders such as the late Rev Jesse Jackson, whose funeral Weaver flew out to this month.<\/p>\n

Weaver flew out to Rev Jesse Jackson\u2019s funeral this month. Photograph: Operation Black Vote<\/p>\n

In the US, Black Americans who marched after George Floyd was killed in 2020 have shifted focus to community organising, self-care, education, enterprise and corporate boycotts \u2013 intentionally \u201cresting\u201d from mass protest, wary of state violence.<\/p>\n

In the UK, Weaver said, the focus was also shifting to \u201cmeaningful\u201d grassroots activism as Black voters felt \u201creally let down by Labour\u201d and \u201cnot inspired by any of the others\u201d, meaning parliamentarians would have to work harder for Black votes.<\/p>\n

Weaver said in the last general election, the nonpartisan OBV had a \u201creally difficult time persuading people who hadn\u2019t registered to vote \u2026 I think Labour find themselves in deep trouble\u201d.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cWe\u2019re finding our communities are thinking about what we can do on the local level to make a difference to our lives. In the past, we were able, when national elections were taking place, to go into areas at short notice and rally communities about how your vote makes a difference successfully. We\u2019re not able to do that any more.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur new approach has been to work on regional levels, encouraging people to become councillors. We\u2019re looking at younger people, at leadership pipelines, moving away from just trying to get people in parliament.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an era where a vocal minority of UK politicians from ethnic minorities were enabling the hard right, Weaver said he felt \u201crepresentation without equity and ethical leadership is futile\u201d.<\/p>\n

He added:\u201cThere\u2019s a level now of almost deliberate \u2018Black-adding\u2019 we call it, that means the worst elements of institutionalised racism get legitimacy because Black people or people of colour are doing it now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Ministry of Justice was approached for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Labour is in \u201cdeep trouble\u201d with Black voters, a former government adviser has warned, saying the party is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":465743,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-465742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465742\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}