Equality head claims there could be no British Obama

Saturday, 8 November 2008 12:00 AM

Institutional racism would block a British Barack Obama from becoming prime minister, the head of Britain's equality watchdog said.

In an interview with the Times, Trevor Phillips, head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said parties would never select a black candidate for the job.

"If Barack Obama had lived here I would be very surprised if even somebody as brilliant as him would have been able to break through the institutional stranglehold that there is on power within the Labour Party," Mr Phillips told the paper.

The problem is not with the electorate, the former Labour chairman of the London Assembly said, it is with the political machine.

Mr Phillips added the Conservatives have made faster progress than Labour in improving its selection process.

The Tories have more black and Asian candidates because they are less democratic than Labour, Mr Phillips said.

"They are happier to impose candidates on the local parties," he explained, adding that Labour was too in hock with the trade unions and leftist think tanks.

Mr Phillips praised Barack Obama in the interview but criticised media coverage for making too much of the fact that he is the first black US president.

"He's a once-in-a-lifetime political phenomenon, a rock star, a single political lightning strike. It's not that he's black," Mr Phillips said.

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• equality
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• labour
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• party politics