On Wednesday evening last week, Tower Hamlets First put out a press release stating that Professor Michael Keith, former leader of the Council, had written a document in 1995 in which he claimed John Biggs had written material which was racist. On Thursday morning, ELN rang John Biggs and asked him for a comment but he had not seen the THF press release and preferred to do so before he commented, which is fair enough.
On early Friday afternoon, the Labour Party issued a press release which constituted the Party’s, and John Biggs’s, response. The response came a day and a half after THF’s initial disclosure, and a good day after ELN first asked for comment. It is all the more surprising, then, that the Labour Party’s considered response (printed in full below) amounted to little more than a denial that something which happened in the past is relevant today.
Michael Keith’s internal, Labour Party document, written in 1995, is a measured explanation of why using coded language and behaving as if the dominant culture is the superior one and sometimes even omissions of words or actions can be construed as racist. He is very specific, accusing John Biggs of racism in a calm and considered manner because of the coded language and understood context of something Biggs has written: “I would also accuse John Biggs of racism, no more and no less” and “I believe it [a memo written by John Biggs] to be racist, told John so in personal correspondence, and would stick to my belief”. It would have been welcome to have had something equally measured and considered this time around. We do not have that.
The Labour Party’s current press release does not deny the authenticity of Michael Keith’s 1995 document, but they do not do us the courtesy of taking it seriously and explaining why they think it is not relevant today. This is particularly worrying as Keith’s comments back then are so similar to the comments made by Cllr Anwar Khan in the last couple of months. Cllr Khan did not know that he was echoing allegations that Michael Keith had made before. It is ironic that nearly 20 years ago Michael Keith was arguing for the Labour Party high-ups to scrutinise their own actions, but now the Party is not even acknowledging that there is anything to scrutinise.
In its press statement, the Labour Party itself says is is rebutting a “wild claim of racism from Lutfur Rahman’s supporters” who, they say, “claimed that former leader of the Council Michael Keith had labelled Biggs as a racist”. How bizarre: it is not Lutfur Rahman’s supporters who are claiming the racism – it is Michael Keith. How bizarre: Lutfur Rahman’s supporters are not “claiming” Michael Keith labelled Biggs as a racist – he did label Biggs as a racist. The Labour Party goes on to say that Rahman’s smears are baseless. How bizarre: it was Keith who made the “smear”. “Rahman’s smear” is not “baseless”: he said that Keith had labelled Biggs a racist, and Keith did – so Rahman is saying something which is true, not baseless. It was not Rahman who said that Biggs was racist – it was Keith.
The second part of Labour’s press release consists of Michael Keith saying that he supports Biggs in this election. This is not that surprising. What is unfortunate, though, is that there is no explanation. “Trying to paint Biggs as a racist is electoral dirty politics,” says Keith (see below). But it is Keith himself who, in 1995, was painting Biggs as a racist. Rahman was just making Keith’s accusations more widely known to today’s voters.
Keith doesn’t say whether he still believes that what he said in 1995 was valid then, or if he now believes he was wrong to say this in 1995. He says he and Biggs have had their differences at times: does this mean that he now sees his past allegations of racism as just a “difference”?
Finally, the Labour Party press release includes a quote from Cllr Sirajul Islam (current Labour Group leader), which is a little disjointed. Cllr Islam claims that John Biggs “led the fight against the BNP”: which fight is that, Cllr Islam? Cllr Islam claims that John Biggs “helped to rid the borough of the deep racial divides which challenged our borough in the past”. Which racial divides are those, and when did they go?
Let’s be clear: East London News does not believe that John Biggs (or Michael Keith, or Cllr Islam) is/are racist in the commonly understanding of the term and in the understanding that Labour is giving to the term. John Biggs is clearly not racist in the sense of being an overt racist who regards black and Asian people as inferior to white people. Also, John Biggs has played an extremely active role in fighting racism, including fighting the BNP, in this borough.
However, there are still questions to answer about how the Labour Party has acted with the black and Asian communities in the UK and in this borough, particularly over the selection and deselection of Lutfur Rahman and since Lutfur Rahman was elected. There is a very coherent case to be made to say that its actions in this regard have revealed institutional racism in the Labour Party and all its leaders and public representatives have to be clear about whether they endorse that or, if not, why. The fact that we now know that Michael Keith made these allegations against some parts of the local Labour Party and John Biggs in particular 20 years ago makes these allegations more worthy of being treated seriously and more deserving of a serious answer.
ELN has asked John Biggs and the Labour Party to provide a copy of the document written by John Biggs and which Michael Keith deemed racist – so that the people can judge for ourselves. We shall let you know their response.
Labour Party press statement Michael Keith: “Trying to paint John Biggs as a racist is a cynical act of electoral dirty politics.” Labour have strongly rebutted another wild claim of racism from Lutfur Rahman’s supporters after they claimed that former leader of the Council Michael Keith had labelled Biggs as a racist. Keith has come out in full support of Biggs labeling Rahman’s character attacks as “scraping the gutter”. Labour describe Rahman’s baseless smears as the last ditch attempt of a desperate man. They argue that whilst Labour are focused on policy and speaking to residents, Lutfur Rahman is out of ideas and resorting to baseless character attacks. Former Leader of the Council, Michael Keith, said: “To dredge up out of context comments that were made almost twenty years ago to smear someone’s character scrapes the gutter. I’ve known John Biggs for decades and, while we have had our differences at times, there is no doubt in my mind that he works for the benefit of the whole community in Tower Hamlets. To try to paint him as a racist is a cynical act of electoral dirty politics. He is the best candidate to represent all the communities of the borough in these difficult times and I am happy to support him.” Leader of the Labour Group, Cllr Sirajul Islam, said: “Lutfur Rahman’s desperate smears are getting totally out of hand. John Biggs is the man who led the fight against the BNP and helped to rid the borough of the deep racial divides which challenged our borough in the past. Rahman’s attacks are a total insult to those who have fought or suffered genuine racial abuse.”