Baroness Lawrence warns Stephen's case could happen again on Liverpool visit

Baroness Lawrence and Equalities Minister Bridget Phillipson visited Liverpool to meet residents and community groups about how best to tackle racism. Their visit included Spellow Library, which was badly damaged by an arson attack during the racist riots of summer 2024. The disorder followed the Southport attack. The library has since reopened with the help of volunteers and has become a symbol of community cohesion in Liverpool and beyond.

Baroness Lawrence, who chairs a government race equality panel set up last year, said she feared what happened to her son Stephen could happen again. She said progress had at times looked possible but recent years had seen a shift backwards. She called on the government to speak up more and make change, saying the same injustice she faced should not be repeated.

Bridget Phillipson used the visit to criticise political rhetoric she said was dividing communities. She accused right-wing parties of a race to the bottom and said Reform had descended into the gutter. She added that the Conservative Party was at times not far behind on language and division. Phillipson said progress on race and nationality was fragile and that rhetoric about skin colour was poisonous, infecting politics and communities and emboldening people.

The visit came amid a wider political row. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch used her party conference speech to attack Reform politicians' views on racial identity, including debate about whether her own mixed-race children were English. Reform criticised Labour's record on anti-Semitism and said it would take Phillipson's lectures on racism with a pinch of salt. Phillipson was also asked about a reported cabinet split over the Home Secretary's plans to change Leave to Remain eligibility. She defended the Home Secretary's work, pointing to a fall in crossings and returns of people without the right to be in the country, and said consultation on further changes was right.

Baroness Lawrence said she still had hope that change would come. But she warned that decades after calling out racism, some echoes of the past could still be heard.