Read The Times interview with Trevor Phillips

Barack Obama would never have been elected prime minister in this country because of “institutional racism” in the Labour Party, the head of Britain’s equality watchdog has told The Times.

Trevor Phillips says in an interview today that the public would be happy to vote for a black leader, but the political system would prevent an ethnic minority candidate getting to the top.

“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,” said the head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission. He said that there was an “institutional resistance” to selecting black and Asian candidates. “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.”

Mr Phillips, a former Labour chairman of the London Assembly, said that the Conservatives had made “faster progress” than Labour in overhauling selection procedures.

Labour insisted that it had a “proud record of promoting ethnic minority candidates”, but a number of its black and Asian MPs backed Mr Phillips.

Parmjit Dhanda, Labour MP for Gloucester and one of only 15 non-white MPs, said: “There are very many glass ceilings for black politicians in this country. I’ve found it tough and I know plenty of others who have as well.” Another Labour MP who did not wish to be named said: “It’s quite right that just as we are feeling all cosy about Obama he gives the system a good kicking. It needs it.”

The comments, which echo the claim made after the murder of the black teenager Stephen Lawrence that there was institutional racism in the Metropolitan Police, will be embarrassing for Gordon Brown.

Research by the Fabian Society published this week suggests that Britain could see the number of black and Asian MPs increase from 15 to about 25 at the next election. But Mr Phillips believes that the way in which candidates and party leaders are chosen makes it harder for those outside the political establishment to break through. He opposes the introduction of all-black shortlists, but says that all parties need to take “positive action”.

Adam Afriyie, the Tory MP for Windsor, said: “I do not believe we will see a black prime minister in my lifetime. In the US a fresh face like Obama can make it in one electoral cycle. In Britain it’s generally a gradual process of service and promotion over many years, and often decades, before leading a political party.”

Sadiq Khan, the Labour MP for Tooting who replaced Mr Dhanda as Minister for Community Cohesion, said: “I fundamentally disagree with Trevor [regarding his comments on institutional racism], but he is right to say that the British electorate is a lot fairer and tolerant and can see through skin colour. I predict there will be a black or Asian prime minister in my lifetime and all the evidence suggests it will be a Labour prime minister. I see no reason why that can’t happen.”

Labour issued a statement saying that it continually reviewed procedures to ensure that elected all positions reflected Britain’s ever-changing society. The Fabian research showed that 10 per cent of Labour’s new parliamentary candidates were from ethnic minorities, rising to 15 per cent in Labour-held seats. Four per cent of new Tory candidates were from minorities, rising to 9 per cent in Tory-held seats.

Mr Phillips today clarified his views. He said he had not intended to imply black candidates faced more obstacles to rising through the ranks in Labour than in the other main parties, rather the systems by which all parties selected their parliamentary candidates and leaders made it more difficult for any “outsiders” to break through.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “The political system has a problem. It is not particular to Labour. In fact, it would be absurd to say that - Labour has 13 out of the 15 (ethnic minority) MPs in the House of Commons; it has essentially led the way on all of this. I don’t think that the Conservatives are in any way better off. They have a lot of catching up to do.

“My point is a very simple one - the political system is to some extent closed to outsiders, to people who are not of a particular stamp. This is not just about race, this is a wider point that our leadership class is really basically white, male and professional. It is very hard for women to break in and very hard for working-class people to get to the higher reaches of parties."

Mr Phillips stressed the system, not individual party members, was to blame for any disadvantages suffered by ethnic minority candidates. “Systems can sometimes work in such a way that in spite of everybody’s goodwill and the fact that everybody wants it to change, it doesn’t change.” It could take 30 or 40 years for efforts being made now to select candidates who are representative of the whole community to feed through into a House of Commons which accurately reflects the make-up of the population.

He added: “It would be very difficult for somebody like Barack Obama to find their way through the way we do things. I don’t think that the public of this country would be at all resistant to electing a black Prime Minister - in fact in this new age, following what’s happened this week, they would rather like it. My point is that it is very difficult for people who don’t fit a certain mould - to do with gender, to do with race and to do with class - to find their way into the upper reaches of politics.”

But Mr Khan said that Labour’s selection procedure had resulted in 15% of candidates for winnable seats coming from the ethnic minorities. Asked if Britain could elect a black Prime Minister, he told Today: “Yes, we could. I know from speaking to my constituents that our electorate is very sophisticated and we judge our politicians by their policies, character and values and not by the colour of their skin.”

Read The Times interview with Trevor Phillips

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