BLACK Labour members held a protest outside the party’s conference today, condemning the leadership’s “silence” in response to the Forde report.

The damning report, published earlier this year, concluded that the Labour had failed to tackle anti-black prejudice within its ranks, with some party employees saying that they believed there was a “hierarchy of racism.”

It also found that black Labour MP Diane Abbott had been “vilified” by Labour staff who expressed a “visceral disgust, drawing (consciously or otherwise) on racist tropes” when criticising the Hackney MP in WhatsApp groups. 

Labour councillor Valerie Bossman-Quarshie told this afternoon’s demonstration that those named in the report should be kicked out of the party.

“Every single person that’s been named in this report should not be there, but they are still in office, still paid by our subscriptions as members,” she said. “How dare they!”

The demo was called by the Campaign Against Afriphobia (CAA), a group of Labour members set up following the Forde report to tackle racism in the party. 

The group has called on Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer to acknowledge anti-black racism in the party and apologise on its behalf. 

However, Ms Bossman-Quarshie, who founded CAA along with Hackney North’s BAME officer Lucie Scott, said that they were still waiting for a full apology. 

The party issued a press release ahead of the conference apologising for discrimination in the party, but Ms Bossman-Quarshie said it had not been sent directly to black members. 

“We asked for an open apology; the apology has yet to come,” she said. “Putting a press release on a website is not an apology; it is not reaching out to black members; it is not apologising for their plight; it’s not saying sorry to Diane Abbott.

“They have put a press release on the eve before conference because they knew this was going to be taking place. They wanted to silence us, but we will not be silenced.”

Explaining why they were calling for action from the leadership, Ms Scott told the demo: “We are not villains for calling out racism. Trying to paper over the cracks is going to cause more damage. 

“There are so many members who have left the party already, so many black voters who are not feeling the Labour Party is there for them. This is fundamentally about having a party that represents us.”

Ahead of the demo, Ms Bossman-Quarshie told the Morning Star that she had also experienced discrimination in the party, but that this was the first time she had felt empowered to speak out. 

“Politically, our home is Labour and if we want to be electable, we need to make sure that, in-house, people feel that their voices are being represented and the Forde report shows that it obviously isn’t,” she added.