last updated: Sunday 9 November 2008, 21:20pm

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British Obama 'not likely' claim rejected

Trevor Phillips

Labour has rejected a claim from Britain's equality watchdog that 'racism' is preventing the election of a black Prime Minister.

If US President-elect Barack Obama had been British, he would have been unable to break through to win power, said Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

But Labour chair Harriet Harman dismissed the claim as 'simply wrong', insisting that her party had led the way in improving the representation of ethnic minorities in politics.

Mr Phillips said: 'If Barack Obama had lived here, I would be very surprised if even somebody as brilliant as him would have been able to break through the institutional stranglehold that there is on power within the Labour Party...

'The parties and unions and thinktanks are all very happy to sign up to the general idea of advancing the cause of minorities but in practice they would like somebody else to do the business. It's institutional racism.'

Ms Harman welcomed Mr Phillips' clarification, adding: 'Labour is the party that has always championed equality. It was Labour MPs who broke down the barriers, starting with Bernie Grant, Keith Vaz and Diane Abbott and now with six times more black and Asian MPs than all the other parties put together.

'But our pledge is full representation which means four times more black and Asian MPs.'

A newly released survey suggested that more than nine out of ten British voters would be ready to vote for a black Prime Minister.

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