Martin Forde KC, who wrote a report for the Labour Party about how it tackles prejudice within its ranks, tells Catherine Baksi he still loves the job even after 40 years.
Martin Forde KC accused Labour of operating a “hierarchy” of racism after he was appointed by the party to investigate allegations of racism and sexism. His report — published in July after being commissioned by the party’s leader, Sir Keir Starmer KC — accused Labour of operating a system in which antisemitism was taken more seriously than discrimination against black, Asian and Muslim members.
In an interview in March, the lawyer criticised the party for not fully engaging with his findings and expressed shock that no one had discussed the recommendations with him since the report’s publication. Since then, says Forde, he has been invited by the working group to implement his recommendations, chaired by Anneliese Dodds, the shadow secretary of state for women and equalities, to discuss proposals the party claims cannot be done. Among them is the need to reform the disciplinary process to speed it up at the very least.
Last month, Diane Abbott, the MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, was suspended from the party over her published letter about race in The Observer newspaper. Abbott suggested that Irish, Jewish and Traveller people do not face the same level of racism as black people and compared the former to prejudice against redheads. Forde stresses that he is no apologist for Abbott but suggests that the MP meant that for white people with protected characteristics, it is “not as obvious from 200 meters” as if you are black.
“I think she was trying to say [black people] are subjected to an irrational type of discrimination, simply due to the amount of melanin in our skin.”
More widely, he understands that faced with the backlog of complaints over antisemitism, the party had to deal with the issue. But he stresses that it cannot ignore the perception among others who feel they are “marginalised” and that the party does not take other prejudices as seriously.
Forde argues that there is a “tendency for those on the left to be a bit smug” and that those people can believe that discrimination is an issue only for the right, and “we are left-wing, therefore we can’t be discriminatory”. But, he insists, the left is “as susceptible to crass banter as any other group”, adding that Labour needs to think harder about its behaviour.
In his twenties, the police would “endlessly” subject him to stop and search, adding that “I could have papered my bedroom wall with producers” or requests to provide driving documents. As a barrister and a part-time judge, Forde has experienced “casual racism”, mostly when appearing somewhere that people do not expect to see a black face. Wearing his wig and gown to visit a client in the Royal Courts of Justice cells, he recalls the prison officer asking if he was counsel. “No, I always dress like this,” he replied. Another time, he says two Asian security guards questioned why he wanted to know where a courtroom was. “Because I’m the judge,” was the answer.
Forde’s father was a printer who dreamed of getting a job on Fleet Street, and his mother was a teacher. They came to the UK from the Caribbean in the 1950s. Like most of the Windrush generation, his father had seen posters inviting him to rebuild the “mother country” and fill post-war labor shortages.
“He arrived knowing the height of Ben Nevis, the source of the Thames and all four verses of the national anthem,” says Forde, adding: “He had been utterly brainwashed into thinking that the sun never sets on the empire and you are part of it.”
An architect of the scheme to compensate those wrongly targeted for removal in the Windrush scandal, Forde stands by his scheme but says its implementation “has not been impressive”. Only around a tenth of the people expected to come forward have done so, says Forde, who suspects that many others have wrongly been denied payments. He gives an example of a Windrusher whose claim was rejected twice. After instructing a solicitor who, he says, slightly tweaked the application, that person was awarded £289,000.
Born in 1961 in Farnham Common in Buckinghamshire, Forde passed the 11-plus and attended Langley Grammar School before studying jurisprudence at Brasenose College, Oxford. An argumentative child, having watched the television series Crown Court, he decided to be thankful to his supportive parents. Forde describes his father as a “valuable mentor” who steered him through the series of “firsts” he encountered — the first black child in primary school and the only black undergraduate in his college.
Paying tribute to several other important figures in his life, including his headmaster and college principal, who have encouraged and supported him, Forde suggests: “However hard you work, you need a little bit of luck if you are from an unconventional background.” But, if he was born now, he doubts that he would have been able to become a barrister. A member of Middle Temple’s scholarship committee, he says the average student debt is £75,000, and they have a one-in-ten chance of getting a pupilage interview. “My dad would have said, ‘You’re mad; go to work’.”
Married with four children, at 62, he says: “I am grateful that I look forward to my job every day —
after 39 years, that’s quite something”. Born in 1961 in Farnham Common in Buckinghamshire, Forde passed the 11-plus and attended Langley Grammar School before studying jurisprudence at Brasenose College, Oxford. An argumentative child and having watched the television series Crown Court, he decided at
