Cllr Bossman-Quarshie

FOUNDERS of a new think tank say black communities are being “left behind” by government policies.

The Black Policy Institute (TBPI), founded by Bunhill councillor Valerie Bossman-Quarshie with its chief executive, Brian Channer, said that issues like unfair stop and searches hold back the black community and disenfranchise them from politics.

“You hear Labour talk about the Red Wall, but what about the Brown Bricks in that wall?,” said Ms Bossman-Quarshie. “ We need to reach communities that are left behind with policies that work for them. It’s not me against the Labour Party, but there needs to be some change. We shouldn’t be hiding, we should be educating.”

TBPI held its inaugural conference earlier this month at the Vibast Community Centre in Old Street.

Ms Bossman-Quarshie said the idea for the event came after the Labour Party was accused by Martin Forde KC of not fully engaging with the findings of a report in which he had said that anti-Black racism and Islamophobia was not taken as seriously as anti-Semitism within the party.

Sir Keir Starmer com­missioned the report, saying at the time: “Today, I make you a number of further promises: Firstly, that under my leadership there will be zero tolerance of anti-Semitism, of racism, of discrimination of any kind.”

Ms Bossman-Quarshie said: “We know what the issues are: education, employment, economics, and environment.

“In education, black students, especially black boys, are being excluded from schools in greater numbers than their white peers. This starts a pipeline that impacts on them later in life when they find they can’t get a job.”

She added: “Housing is an issue as well. Ethnic minorities are being priced out of areas around London. There’s unconscious bias when it comes to buying homes and getting mortgages and we need to make it easier for people. Because black people earn less, they’re less likely to be able to buy a house.

“In terms of policy, we would propose allowing rent to count towards your credit score, and even allowing things like paying your TV licence to count towards your credit score.”

Mr Channer said that at the conference: “Some of the biggest issues that came up were stop and search, issues around education, issues around investing in black businesses and lack of community projects, as well as the higher rates of black women dying in childbirth. These are all things that have a profound effect on our community and really weigh us down.”

He added: “We wanted to ask the general public what they wanted the next step to be and they said they wanted a comprehensive manifesto on how policies operate and their impact on us as a community.”