Labour attempted to gag a prominent Black barrister who authored a report that exposed a “hierarchy of racism” within the party, The Independent can reveal.
In a letter sent by lawyers representing Labour, Martin Forde KC was warned that he was “acting against the party’s interest” after he gave an interview highlighting Labour’s failures in relation to the report.
Mr Forde said the exchange had left him “irritated”, telling The Independent that the party “can’t silence me”.
The Forde report, an independent inquiry into Labour’s culture that was published in July 2022, found that the party was an “unwelcoming place for people of colour” and had a “toxic” culture of factional disputes between the party’s right and left.
In March 2023, Mr Forde gave an interview to Al Jazeera in which he said that no one from Labour had been willing to discuss the recommendations further and highlighted concerns raised by ethnic minority politicians within Labour about racism in the party.
In response, it has now emerged that the Labour Party sent Mr Forde a robust legal letter, seen by The Independent, accusing him of acting against the party’s interests and advising him that it was “considering all of its options”.
Lawyers accused Mr Forde of having made “extensive negative and highly prejudicial comments” and questioned his professional conduct.
Speaking to The Independent this week, the respected barrister said: “I don’t know if it was an attempt to silence me. I mean, they’ve couched it carefully along the lines of ‘We’re reminding you of your professional duties,’ which I found mildly irritating because I am a regulatory lawyer, and I don’t like my professionalism or ethics being questioned ... but I felt it was more.
He continued: “I’m a private individual; they can’t silence me. I fundamentally object to people saying to me, ‘You don’t know how to behave as a professional.’ I’m afraid that Black professionals get it all the time.”
The Forde report made 165 recommendations, including the use of blind CVs in recruitment and changes to the complaints procedure, the majority of which the party says it has now implemented.
However, during his interview with Al Jazeera, the barrister claimed that Labour’s lack of debate and engagement over his findings at the time raised wider concerns. He described Labour’s antisemitism training as “largely didactic, top-down and one-dimensional”.
The barrister also told the news outlet that “quite a high proportion of Black and Asian councillors or prospective MPs felt they’d been subjected to disciplinary action which had been deliberately timed to exclude them from qualifying processes or selection”.
On receipt of the legal complaint, Mr Forde responded via his own lawyers, in a letter, seen by The Independent, that dismissed the accusations as “baseless”. He said he did not hear from Labour on the matter again.
Mr Forde said he read the correspondence from Labour’s legal representatives as an indication that they might report him to his regulatory body.
He said: “I was surprised to receive those letters, and was also surprised by the tone and content, because I thought I had a sufficiently good working relationship with the general secretary for him simply to ask me what I’d said,” adding: “All he had to do was pick up the phone.”
The Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer, has been accused in recent weeks of enacting a purge on the Labour left, following selection rows over veteran MP Diane Abbott and Chingford and Woodford Green candidate Faiza Shaheen.
Ms Shaheen was dropped as a candidate over a series of likes on social media posts, while it was briefed that Ms Abbott, who had recently had the Labour whip restored after she suggested that people from the Jewish, Irish and Traveller communities experience prejudice but not racism, would be barred from standing for the party. It has now been confirmed that she is allowed to stand as a Labour candidate.
When asked what people might make of the correspondence from Labour in the context of the arguments over Ms Abbott and Ms Shaheen, Mr Forde added: “I am sure that people will definitely see it as a collateral attack on a Black professional.”
Mish Rahman, a member of Labour’s national executive committee (NEC), told The Independent he was disappointed by the letter to Mr Forde.
“This legal threat from the Labour Party to Mr Forde is consistent with the behaviour of Starmer’s Labour Party, which is intent on cracking down on any dissent or criticism rather than the actual perpetrators of racism,” said Mr Rahman.
“We also saw this in the party’s pursuit of those it believed had leaked evidence of racism, and its defence of those who had made racist and bigoted comments.”
Mr Rahman claimed that Mr Forde had been invited to attend NEC meetings on several occasions, but that Sir Keir and his general secretary had refused to allow it.
He said: “As a member, I received countless correspondence from members about the delayed Forde report into racism in the party. It is now clear as day that Forde was suppressed by Labour’s leadership, and that they have attempted to cover up the report’s disgraceful findings by stopping Forde from meeting the NEC.
“Under Keir’s leadership, the party operates a hierarchy of racism, where it doesn't take anti-Black racism and Islamophobia seriously, and instead punishes those like Martin Forde KC and Faiza Shaheen, who bring evidence of racism to light.
“The irony and double standards are astoundingly laid bare.”
A Labour Party spokesperson said: “The Labour Party is fully committed to tackling racist and discriminatory attitudes wherever they arise, within and outside the party. Labour has apologised for the culture and attitudes expressed by senior staff that were examined by the Forde report.
“We are proud the party has completed work on the recommendations made by Martin Forde, and want to place on record, once again, our thanks to Martin for his hard work.
“Labour has introduced a new, independent complaints process, a code of conduct on Afrophobia, anti-Black racism and Islamophobia, and mandatory training for staff on Afrophobia and anti-Black racism.
“We are delighted that Labour has more Black candidates, and Black male candidates in particular, than ever before.”
The Independent also contacted Sir Keir’s office for comment.
The leaked documents referred to in this report were made available by Paul Holden, an investigative journalist whose book will be published at the end of the year
