3 HISTORY
Members of ethnic minorities have been part of the Labour Movement since its beginnings in chartism . " Jews have no better friends in this country than the Labour Party " said the Jewish Chronicle in 1920 . Notwithstanding a vibrant Palestinian solidarity tradition , of all British political parties the Labour Party has the longest and most consistent record of support for Zionism , and the Labour Government quickly moved to recognise the new state of Israel upon its formation in 1948 .
Earlier in 1945 , 26 of the 28 Jewish MPs elected to Parliament were Labour members and one of the other two was a Communist . This inclusiveness is equally evident in the history of Irish political participation in the Party from its earliest days . In the 1970 General Election , 80 per cent of Irish voters supported Labour . In 2010 , the proportion of the BAME vote for Labour was more than double that in relation to the white population .
All United Kingdom legislation to address racial discrimination has been enacted by Labour Governments . Further , from the mid-1970s the Party began to promote active policies in pursuit of equal opportunities . One outcome in the 1980s was a more welcoming environment for black and Asian workers in public sector employment in Labour controlled local authorities . In 1987 Diane Abbott , Paul Boateng , Bernie Grant and Keith Vaz were elected to the House of Commons and as late as 2005 , 13 out of the 15 BAME MPs were Labour .
Yet according to the testimony received by my Inquiry and published by various contributors online , there have also been incidences of overt antisemitism , Islamophobia and other forms of racism in the Party over the years . There has been occasional resort to disparaging ethnic stereotyping ( including but not exclusively of Jewish people ) and even racially discriminatory legislation in the form of the Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1968 designed to prevent East African Asians from coming to the United Kingdom .
The years following the Twin Towers atrocity in New York in September 2001 and the London bombings of July 2005 saw the Labour Government ' s support for the War on Terror at home and abroad . The Iraq War ( to be discussed in the long-awaited report of another inquiry ), as well as stop and search without suspicion , punishment without charge or trial and the domestic extremism agenda left many British Muslims feeling suspect and alienated in their natural political home .
Even this brief potted history should demonstrate the constant danger of geopolitics , foreign , immigration and other home affairs policy periodically colliding so as to heighten sensitivities and breed divisions within the Labour Party , and a feeling of vulnerability on the part of ethnic or religious minorities within it . External threats to our solidarity are often unavoidable , but where we can strive to do better is in our attempts at uniting in difficult times and in our sensitivity to minority groups and opinions so as to disagree well . Members of any party ( including its leaders ) may always be judged to have been right or wrong on policy in the light of subsequent events . This Inquiry is not about the wisdom of substantive policy , but rather , about the tone of constructive debate .
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