Labour risks alienating Black voters over proposed curbs on jury trials and the pace of action on racial equality, the chair of Operation Black Vote has warned, saying the party is in “deep trouble” with a group that strongly backed it at the last general election.
David Weaver said ministers were in danger of appearing to take Black support for granted. He warned that disillusionment could depress turnout and cost Labour votes in marginal seats if the government failed to address concerns over justice reform, Windrush and ethnicity pay gaps.
Weaver, who chairs the organisation founded in 1996 to increase Black political representation, singled out the government’s Courts and Tribunals Bill, introduced last month, which would restrict jury trials in some cases as part of efforts to reduce the Crown Court backlog.
The justice secretary, David Lammy, has defended the changes as a necessary modernisation to stop the system from buckling under delays and to cut the time victims wait for cases to be heard. But the proposals are also facing resistance inside Labour, with up to 65 MPs reported to be considering abstention or rebellion at second reading.
Weaver said any move away from jury trial would “heighten, normalise and embed” racial disproportionality in a justice system already marked by disparities in stop and search, arrests and sentencing. He argued that jury trial remained an important democratic check on state power.
“Only 1% of judges in England and Wales are Black. So if juries are replaced with judge-only trials, then what happens is overwhelmingly white,” he said.
The warning is politically sensitive for Labour because Black voters were more likely than any other group to support the party in 2024. Weaver said Operation Black Vote had found it difficult even then to persuade some unregistered Black voters to turn out.
“We had a really difficult time persuading people who hadn’t registered to vote … I think Labour find themselves in deep trouble,” he said.
He accused the government of showing too little urgency on the Equality (Race and Disability) Bill, which would require companies with 250 or more employees to publish salary data relating to race and disability, and said ministers had moved too slowly in addressing injustices arising from the Windrush scandal.
In November 2025, Keir Starmer pledged to “stand up to racism”, but Weaver said delivery had not matched the rhetoric. He also said a wider “moral panic” over migration was feeding a sense among Black voters that Labour was “accepting the normalisation of racism”.
“When they’re away from power, Labour will go alongside Black communities. But the closer their proximity to power, the more they revert to type,” he said, adding that some in government appeared to believe: “Well, we don’t have to think about them, because we’re going to get their vote anyway.”
Weaver said the challenge went beyond the number of Black politicians in public life, arguing that symbolic representation would not be enough without broader structural change. “Representation without equity and ethical leadership is futile,” he said.
He said Operation Black Vote would place more emphasis on building local leadership pipelines and recruiting Black councillors, alongside continuing pressure on ministers over long-running racial inequalities.
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