EXCLUSIVE: "Unleash the BAME talent," urge diversity leaders

By Barnie Choudhury 

THE data is there. The recommendations are there. What is lacking is the govern­ment’s political will to end racism once and for all in the UK.

That is the damning accusation of black and Asian leaders from the world of politics and anti-racism activism.

In an exclusive Eastern Eye virtual round­table, Lord Simon Woolley, director of Op­eration Black Vote and chair of the govern­ment’s Race Disparity Unit, set up by former prime minister Theresa May, said, “Change is predicated on political will. There’s little or no political will. Data is not enough. You need champions to turn it into policy change.”

He said the appetite for racial parity in organisations and institutions was great, but the jury was out on whether the chang­es would be big or superficial.

“The government too often has to be dragged kicking and screaming, whether it’s Windrush or Covid-19. So it’s going to be difficult for us to use the internal levers of power for change,” Lord Woolley said.

“The centre is saying, ‘can we change the narrative?’ And we activists are saying, ‘it’s not the narrative that needs to change, it’s the systems’.”

Labour’s Brent Central MP Dawn Butler, another panellist, dismissed the Race Dis­parity Unit as something the government used only to get itself out of trouble on mat­ters of race and was otherwise sidelined.

She believed that after three generations, white people marching in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, and the power of social media, meant this time change was possible.

“We get that change now is to not to have these incremental small steps that happen every decade or so. It is to make sure that we dismantle the structural racism that exists in all of the organisations, the government, the police, judicial system, and then we won’t need to be here again,” Butler said.

The other two roundtable members – Sanjay Bhandari, chair of football’s Kick It Out; and director of the identity and integration think-tank British Future, Sunder Katwala – agreed that there was a “window of oppor­tunity” where the government needed to “unleash the BAME talent” in the UK, and there was an “impatience for real change”.

“It isn’t about is it better than 20 years ago. It’s about have we got to equal oppor­tunity yet, and clearly there are disparities,” said Katwala. “This is a moment about the fact that black people, Asian people, have got more presence, more profile, more pow­er and more voice in public life than ever before. There is a demand to see progress get right to the top very quickly, not waiting, because it always takes time, and this is a moment for that change.”

The panel agreed that the Black Lives Matter campaign, and footballers taking the knee before each game, had galvanised the nation, and with Covid disproportionately affecting BAME communities, it was a “per­fect storm” to create change.

But structural racism remained a big challenge, said Butler, which she likened to an unfair 100 metres race.

“You have two people going for a job. On the outside, they’ll say, ‘well, you both got to run 100 metres, right’? But the problem is for the black or brown person, they’ve got hurdles in their lane. But no one’s talking about the hurdles. That’s why you have to dismantle and take away all of those hur­dles to make it fair.”

Bhandari said Britain had, like football fans, become tribal and unwilling to listen to others because of the party to which they belonged. But he stressed that people need­ed to “move beyond the gestures of solidar­ity and into concerted action”.

“Is this a moment or another false dawn?” he asked about the current campaigns. “You have to go in a pincer movement. We have to have grassroots movements, like taking a knee, that create pressure, but you’ve got to be clear on what it is you’re asking for. Then we have to actually talk to the people who’ve got levers of power to deliver those things.”

Those levers of power existed in profes­sions such as the civil service, the judiciary, armed forces, the police and sport, the panel said, but the figures were difficult to obtain and were often confusing.

But research by Eastern Eye found official figures which revealed that:

--As of March 2019, of the 40 permanent secretaries – the most senior rank in the civil service – none is an ethnic minority.

--All 43 chief constables in England and Wales are white.

--Only seven per cent of court judges are black or Asian, and there has never been a head of division.

--In October 2018, the Ministry of Defence revealed that of the nine grades in the armed forces, band seven, eight and nine – the top brass – not one is BAME.

--FTSE 100 companies are unlikely to reach the target that all will have at least one eth­nic minority board member by the end of 2021, as recommended in the Parker review of 2017.

--In 2019, just eight of the 227 chief execu­tives of NHS Trusts were black or Asian.

--In football, six out of 92 head coaches or managers in the Premier League and Eng­lish Football League were black, but south Asians have yet to make their mark.

While data collection was important, the panel said, people were demanding action.

“As we come out of lockdown, we need to follow the data and invest according to it, otherwise, the data is meaningless,” said Butler. “That doesn’t happen, and you’ll still get discrepancies which will magnify them­selves 100 times after lockdown, because the UK’s going to go into a serious recession.”

Katwala argued that Britain had the best data in the world and knew where the gaps in equality were. But organisations were confused about how to tackle the problem.

He said, “We need some discomfort to bring about action on change, but we need people to feel they are culturally equipped to start on that journey and to speed it up. So, government has to show how to act, help other people act, so that the boards know it’s not just a box that we’ve ticked, where they pretended to do something.”

Last week, Eastern Eye reported that for­mer chief prosecutor, Nazir Afzal, felt he was being asked to apply for jobs just to make up ethnic minority numbers on shortlists. The panel agreed this had to be stopped, and the latest race commission being set up by the government needed to lead the way.

Lord Woolley said, “Let’s not have it look­ing for data because the data’s there, but rather look for a ‘commission for solutions’. The number one solution would be to im­plement the recommendations from the 11 previous reviews ASAP.”

Eastern Eye can reveal that the Race Dis­parity Unit’s ethnic pay gap report is gather­ing dust.

“There is a policy that needs to be imple­mented,” said Lord Woolley, “It is called the ethnic minority pay gap reporting. It’s there, we can pay for it, we consulted upon it. But it’s been kicked into the long grass.”

Bhandari, who took over Kick It Out last September, said organisations should pub­lish a “manifesto” for change. That is what he did, with the English Football Associa­tion’s support. But he warned that change would only happen if those who held real power wanted true equality.

“The real power in football is with the commercial sponsors. That’s where you have to have conversations, with Sky and BT Sports, Nike and Adidas,” he said. “The peo­ple who put the money into football and keep that geyser of cash flowing, because that is the bit that football responds to.”

So, what advice would the former senior leader at global accountants EY and KPMG give the prime minister’s race commission?

“Within the first month, have a plan for implementing all the previous recommen­dations that have been made. Don’t start from ground zero, because we’re all going to think you’re just going to kick it into the long grass,” Bhandari said.

“Even if you just focused on the recom­mendations, you’d probably have 20 things that you have to do.”

However, Butler does not believe a new race commission is needed. She wants the government to make good on May’s prom­ise of setting up the Office for Tackling In­justices. It was announced last July, and al­most 12 months later, nothing has happened. She also had more advice for Johnson.

“Too often the government gives pro­curement contracts to lots of organisations, and there’s no responsibility behind them,” Butler said. “There needs to be an inclu­sion rider, and we need to make sure that every single legislation has an equality im­pact assessment, and is reviewed before, during and after, otherwise you don’t know what’s happening.”

According to Katwala, it was very impor­tant that people were specific about know­ing what change they wanted.

“We’ve got to push very fast for change in institutions. But we must be careful about the storytelling – about why tackling ine­quality and race inequality is good for eve­rybody in society, so we don’t get into this ‘them and us’ debate about if those issues were addressed. my issues won’t be.”

Lord Woolley said that activists needed to demand change. He revealed that 130,000 people had signed a petition seeking a race equality strategy to tackle Covid-19.

“It would follow the disease where it laid bare those uncomfortable truths, and you would have a serious conversation, explain or change why black and brown people have been disproportionately affected in these areas, and what’s the plan to close the gaps. It’s a real opportunity that leaders, our generation, must not lose.”

And he had this personal message for the prime minister.

“My conversation would be looking at the self-interest argument for him to realise that by design or default, let’s say default, a lot of the journey is holding people back when it should be unleashing them.

“The second thing would be to say, look, you’ve been on that ward, fighting for your life, and the vast majority of people that were around you, fighting for your life, were black and brown people. At this critical mo­ment you, as our leader, need to acknowl­edge the contribution that these people are making every single day.”