• I WAS so shocked and disgusted to see the story unfold about the strip search of “Child Q”. What has happened to this child and the excuses used to explain it is beyond belief.

The idea that we are to accept that police officers do not know law and that a teacher in school did not know anything about safeguarding a child, and then called the police, exposes the darkness in our society.

And it is the teachers and police who are involved in abusing the law and violating a female. It was all covered up for nearly two years but truth has a habit of coming out when it’s least expected.

“But the police were only doing their job…” and “What is a teacher to do if they find drugs?”, some will cry.

But these cries of protest did not come from the leader of the Labour Party.

Diane Abbott was on a protest march and Yvette Cooper even asked a question in the House of Commons, but it was the Tories not Labour that were doing the heavy lifting and calling outrage. And that worries me.

It disturbs me to my core that the Labour Party was not there to fight for Child Q; but more worryingly it tells me that Labour will not be fighting for me and my human rights.

What that says to me is that the Labour Party is no longer the party of human rights; it is no longer the party of social justice; and it is no longer the party that is fighting against racism.

And above all it is not the party that is about the rights of disabled, sick, old and, like me, who have a black and brown skin.

That is why I will not be voting for it. I will, however, still be voting for Emily Thornberry, as she is the most devoted and hard-working MP that the people of Islington South and Finsbury have ever had.

My admiration for her goes beyond mere words; but I no longer see the Labour Party as a safe place that respects the rights of black and brown people.

RAPHAEL ANDREWS
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