At Conference last weekend, my maiden speech as Vice President was in support of a Motion on a race equality policy paper: Eradicating Race Inequality produced by Merlene Emerson, Baroness Hussein-Ece and the Race Equality – Policy Working Group.
I talked about my experience, as a young barrister, of seeking to comfort a Caribbean grandma who couldn’t bear to watch her young, black grandson being sentenced for possession of a knife.
A knife he’d felt forced to carry to protect himself from gangs.
I assured her then that her grandson would be treated fairly, but had no idea that my words were as hollow then as they would be if I said them now, some twenty years later.
The statistics are shocking:
- BaME people are the most likely in our society to become a victim of crime or to fear becoming a victim* (leading to disproportionate numbers of BaME people feeling forced to carry a knife for protection)
- rates of prosecution and sentencing for black people are three times higher than for white people **
It is clear that our criminal justice system, like politics, is broken.
I am glad that the Motion was passed and that there was such overwhelming support for it. It provides an excellent blueprint for our policy work in this area going forward.
Registered supporters’ scheme
I later had the chance to speak in support of a registered supporters’ scheme.
I acknowledge that there were many aspects of the Motion that were controversial and I will leave it to those better qualified to address those particular points.
My viewpoint was in relation to attracting more BaME voters, members and candidates to our Party.
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