Mahmood Supported Group Which Called Justice System “Racist” – Guido Fawkes

Labour has been working hard to shift blame onto the Tories in the ongoing ‘two-tier’ justice row. When Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood discovered that the Sentencing Council required pre-sentencing reports for ethnic minorities, she expressed her disapproval in the Commons: “As somebody who is of an ethnic minority background myself, I do not stand for any differential treatment before the law for anyone of any kind.” She’s since written to the Council, urging them to reconsider…

The argument that new rules first came under the Tory government fell flat when Robert Jenrick explained that the 2024 Sentencing Council review was merely a draft, stating that judges may consider pre-sentencing reports for ethnic minorities, not that they were mandatory. It has since emerged that the Sentencing Council’s new rules were based on a 2017 report by David Lammy. A report of which Keir Starmer was actually a member on the Expert Advisory Panel…

Guido can also reveal that Shabana Mahmood supported a group called Movement for Justice By Any Means Necessary, which launched a #WidenWindrush campaign in 2019. This campaign, which as an MP Mahmood lent her name to, was both legal and political, aiming to secure an amendment to the Windrush Scheme. The group published a review that stated:

“It is the discrimination embedded in that Act, which led to so many of the Windrush generation being deported following criminal convictions; acquired in the decades preceding the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry, in a criminal justice system that has been proven to be institutionally racist.”

The campaign had support from several Labour MPs, including David Lammy, Lucy Powell, Janet Daby, Diane Abbott, and Dawn Butler. In February 2020, Mahmood raised similar concerns in the Commons with then-Justice minister Lucy Frazer, saying:

“Cases that I have been dealing with as a constituency MP concern me because of the potential for the race disparities that we know exist within the justice system, as the Minister has just said, to manifest themselves in cases of IPP prisoners from a BAME background, particularly in relation to access to courses and the diagnosis and treatment of mental health conditions. What can the Minister do to ensure that the injustices relating to IPP sentences are not further compounded by our systemic problem with race in the criminal justice system?”

Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick tells Guido, “Labour’s fingerprints are all over this two-tier sentencing guidance. Unless Starmer acts urgently we will have a two-tier justice system that is biased against men, white people and Christians next month.” Labour’s claims of opposing two-tier justice to combat ‘institutional racism’ in the justice system are starting to wear thin…