The Labour party leader Sir Keir Starmer has committed himself to undertake unconscious bias training after Sir Kier was accused of devaluing the Black Lives Matter protests by calling them a “moment”.
The Labour leader has recently begun a morning feature on LBC with Nick Ferrari titled ‘call Kier’ and was today challenged by Sharon, a caller who claimed she was a black Labour party member who phoned in to accuse him of “unconscious dismissive language and attitudes” that “feed into structural racism and unchallenged pervading elements of society”.
On the feature last week Sir Keir described calls from some activists to defund the police as “nonsense” before adding: “The Black Lives Matter movement, or moment if you like, internationally is about reflecting something completely different.”
Sir Keir today clarified that he meant to say that the rallies were “a defining moment and turning point”. He told LBC today: “I have to admit that if I’d actually put ‘defining’ into the ‘moment’ it might have been a lot easier, but that’s what I meant”.
Sir Kier was then challenged by Sharon to undertake unconscious bias training. To this Sir Keir said it was being introduced for his staff and that “I am going to lead from the top on this and do that training first.”
Sir Keir has promised to do the three-hour course “as soon as I can book in for it”. As well as this he said: “I think everybody should have unconscious bias training, I think it is important. There is always the risk of unconscious bias and just saying ‘oh well it only applies to other people and not me’ is not the right thing to do, so I am going to lead from the front on this and do the training”.
Current Affairs Correspondent | My name is Oliver Down I am 22, and a staunch brexiteer. I am a Bristolian lad who studied politics in Leicester. I believe in free speech and accurate journalism and I won’t be afraid to give you “the other side” of the story!
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