London was hosting two separate high-profile conferences on race issues today after Ken Livingstone decided to snub an international convention organised by the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) and organise a rival event at City Hall.
The competing talkfests are a result of the long-running spat between the London Mayor and Trevor Phillips, the chairman of the CRE, who is accused by Mr Livingstone of undermining the concept of multiculturalism.
Mr Livingstone had been invited to address the CRE’s two-day Race Convention, called to review progress 30 years after the passing of the Race Relations Act, which established the race watchdog.
But at the eleventh hour, he wrote to the CRE chairman turning down the invitation.
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“The publicity for the convention says ‘it will be a landmark event with up-to-the-minute debate to set the agenda for race relations and social equality in 21st century Britain’,” Mr Livingstone wrote.
“In reality it is clear that the content of the convention, as indicated by your intended workshops, such as Rivers of Blood: Did Enoch Powell get it right? or Plural cities: Opportunity or Timebomb?, are there to grab alarmist headlines rather than develop meaningful discourse.”
Stepping up the personal attack, Mr Livingstone added: “This would be consistent with the course that you have pursued over the last few years in which the emphasis has been on putting out factually false information, such as that Britain’s communities are becoming more separate, rather than addressing the real issues of racism and discrimination.”
The CRE is set to be disbanded next year when it is merged with other equalities organisations to form the Commission for Equality and Human Rights (CEHR), which Mr Phillips will also head.
But critics say that the new body will harm the cause of racial equality by removing the only official national organisation dedicated to working for race relations.
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Among them are the 1990 trust, an organisation that opposed today’s convention.
“We believe the CEHR will set race relations back 30 years, as the government’s one size fits all policy of lumping all equalities subjects together will mean race will be sidelined,” a spokeswoman said.
The CRE’s decision to charge delegates up to £700 a head to attend the conference has also come under attack. In his letter, Mr Livingstone said that the reduced rate of £350 for delegates from voluntary sector organisations was “prohibitive”.
“This will exclude the very people and organisations that share the lived experience of discrimination and disadvantage,” he said.
“They have been at the forefront of the fight for equality and many of the gains that have been made over the last 30 years can be attributed to their efforts and sacrifice.”
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As well as deciding to boycott the conference, Mr Livingstone also decided to withdraw sponsorhip from Transport for London, which he chairs - although he did so too late to recoup some £27,000 already paid out by TfL.
It is not the first time that Mr Livingstone has criticised Mr Phillips, his former political ally who has taken a much more pragmatic approach as head of the CRE and has warned that Britain risks “sleepwalking into segregation”.
His most ferocious attack came in September, when the CRE chief dismissed a newspaper’s description of the Notting Hill Carnival as “a triumph of multiculturalism”.
In reply, Mr Livingstone accused Mr Phillips of “pandering to the Right” so much “that I expect he’ll soon be joining the BNP”.
Interviewed on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning, Mr Phillips said he was disappointed that Mr Livingstone would not attend today’s main conference, but did not understand his criticism. “The problem with feuds is that they have to be two-sided, but I have no idea what it’s about,” he said.
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The spat comes at a time of heightened racial tensions in the UK and a national debate on the limits of multiculturalism marked by a row over the wearing of religious symbols in the workplace.
One group attending both the Race Convention and the mayor’s Race and Faith Leadership Sumit tonight is the Muslim Council of Britain, which has criticised the CRE for not speaking out enough against “Islamophobia”.
Dr Mohammed Abdul Bari, the MCB’s Secretary General, said: “We have been unhappy with the CRE but that doesn’t mean that we don’t take part in their events. We express our unhappiness by engaging, not by boycotting.”