I miss my late husband, Bernie Grant, every day, but was painfully reminded of the challenges he faced as one of the first black MPs by Diane Abbott’s experience (Frank Hester’s ugly words about me are a reminder: all parties, including Labour, must stand against racism, 13 March). Labour’s difficulties on race are deep-seated and longstanding, and it has always weaponised or trumpeted the issue at its convenience.
The first black MPs for almost 100 years – Bernie, Abbott and Paul Boateng – walked a tightrope to become selected and then again to get elected, and re-elected. Another candidate, Sharon Atkin, was deselected in 1987 for declaring the Labour party was racist. As they sought to establish the first black presence in parliament, there were huge expectations, and at the same time vicious abuse in the gutter press, intrusion into our families, threats of violence and, at best, condescension from parliamentarians themselves, as they sought to reflect the pressing issues facing the black community.
We lived by our wits, always alert to the next hostile onslaught, externally or internally. It was enduring and exhausting, damaging to both mental and physical health. Bernie died; Diane has somehow kept going through her own health challenges for two more decades.
These were people’s real lives over many years, not a reality TV show, and those who went through this, and continue to do so, rightly demand our support and respect. There is nothing new to them about the current concerns for MPs’ safety, and no one should be making political capital from their predicament. There is an opportunity now for Labour to turn a corner on race, and its response must be more than performative.
Sharon Grant
London
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