After the historic election of Barack Obama, the first African-American president of the United States , the head of Britain ’s equality watchdog has claimed that Britain is not ready to do the same. This is not due to racism from the British voters, but from within the political parties.

Trevor Phillips is the chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, and he told the Times newspaper that due to ‘institutional racism’ within the Labour party, this is not possible in the foreseeable future. He continues, saying that even if someone as brilliant as Obama would not be able to break through the stranglehold that there is on power in the Labour party. After praising the Conservative party for having come a lot further on it’s selecting procedures, he finished painting a bleak picture.
‘The parties and unions and think-tanks are all very happy to sign up to the general idea of advancing the cause of minorities but in practice they would like somebody else to do the business. It’s institutional racism.’

MP’s from both parties disagree on the probability of a black or ethnic Prime Minister in the near future, while a spokesperson from the Labour party said they had a proud record of promoting ethnic minority candidates.