‘It’s time to say goodbye’

By Lord Meghnad Desai

I ARRIVED in London in September 1965 to teach at the London School of Economics (LSE).

I had left India in 1961 and gone to the United States, thanks to Ford Foundation Fellowship to do my PhD. While there, I became aware of the racial discrimination against black people. The protest movement against the Vietnam War had radical­ised me.

Coming to London, I found it to be pleasant and agreeable. Unlike many other Indians, I faced no difficulty in finding a place to rent. All my friends were cosmopolitan and interesting. I became active in supporting radical causes, especially for LSE students, as well as fighting Enoch Powell’s racist speech.

It was no surprise then that I joined the Labour party in September 1971. By then I was married and lived in Islington, north London. I became active in local politics, especially in the support for compre­hensive education and we sent all our three chil­dren to the local comprehensive school.

The Islington South and Finsbury Labour party became a fruitful area for pursuing my ideals of creating a more equal and tolerant society. I be­came chairman of the party in 1986 and led it through two elections – 1987 and 1992.

In 1991, Labour leader Neil Kinnock nominated me for the House of Lords and I became the first person of Asian origin to be a Labour member in the Lords. I gave up my chairmanship of the party in 1992 and was made a lifetime president of the Islington South and Finsbury Labour party. [I have described some of this in detail in my autobiogra­phy Rebellious Lord, published by Westland Press in India recently.]

Throughout my career in the Labour party, we fought for racial as well as gender equality. Our MP, Chris Smith, was the first openly gay parliamentar­ian. I worked closely with John Smith who was keenly interested in social justice and worked on schemes of citizens’ income.

The Labour party always had debates and quar­rels. There was a left and right division, but it was a friendly divide. I belonged to the soft left. Our idea was to move the country to a more equal, less poor, more caring society.

We lost the election in 1979 and did not regain power till 1997. It was during this period that we were infiltrated by the hard left, by the “militants” who used violent methods to pursue their aims.

It took a lot of effort by the moderate left and right to defeat the hard right. Neil Kinnock showed bold leadership,at that time.

Tony Blair won three elections and we were in power from 1997 to 2010. We had a lot of achieve­ments – peace in Northern Ireland, devolution, House of Lords reform, Supreme Court, minimum wage, more money for the NHS, and Labour had the largest number of women and people from ethnic minorities in the House of Commons.

But we lost in 2010 and again in 2015 and the party began to change. Once again, we had infiltra­tion of the hard left, but now it was not just a matter of difference about the speed of political change or even the tactics. An ugly virus of anti-Semitism had begun to infect the party. MPs who were Jewish were abused. Women MPs were trolled, threatened on social media. The party leadership failed to fight this virus – most members went unpunished and some even boasted about their hatred of Jews.

I became very uncomfortable with this develop­ment and said so in our group meeting once about three years ago. It was clear that our then leader, Jeremy Corbyn, whatever his own views, was not keen to check the anti-Semitism in the party. The Jewish board of deputies complained, but they got no redress.

We lost in 2017 and then massively in 2019. A new leader, Sir Keir Starmer, was elected by the party in early 2020 and he promised to deal with the problem. The Equality and Human Rights Com­mission issued a damning report about anti-Semi­tism in the Labour party last month.

I had high hopes that the party would be mend­ed. When Corbyn made a dismissive response to the Commission’s findings, he was suspended from Labour. I was disappointed when he was last Tues­day (17) readmitted following a unanimous deci­sion by the National Executive panel only 19 days after his suspension and without an apology.

Clearly, the party was ambivalent about eradi­cating racism. The next day the whip was temporar­ily withdrawn from Corbyn, This was a mild gesture of no consequence as he had never obeyed the whip in any case when he was a backbencher.

I decided then that the virus of anti-Semitism was not likely to be removed from the Labour party any time soon. I was ashamed of being a member of a racist party, so I decided to resign.

Many of my fellow Labour peers, who are friends, urged me not to go but stay and fight. I have to live with my conscience. The Labour party I joined 49 years ago is no longer the beacon of hope and ide­alism it used to be. It was time to say good bye.

I have heard that the Labour party is anti-Indian, but I do not credit that. My experience has been positive throughout my 49 years. When last Sep­tember the party conference passed a resolution on Kashmir criticising India’s policy, many friends asked me why was this. But the Labour party has members of Pakistani and Azad Kashmir origin, and they bring their views to the conference.

Lately, people of Indian origin – especially Hin­dus – have drifted away from Labour and joined the Conservative party. This is because British Hindus are aspirational and have an ambition to thrive and merge into British culture. They feel that the La­bour party often is condescending towards them or hostile to their economic success.

Even more generally, Conservative chancellor Rishi Sunak has received many adverse criticisms just for having been successful in his business ca­reer. This is from within his party as well. One can only hope that this will pass.

But it is with regret rather than anger that I leave the party. If Labour gets rid of its racist elements, no one will be happier about it than I. Now, however, it is good bye.