Doreen Lawrence has said David Cameron's government is not doing enough to tackle racial prejudice, which continues to blight society, and has warned that spending cuts will hit working-class and black Britons the hardest. In a Guardian interview, Lawrence says the government has huge powers to make a difference in leading the fight against racism, but says: "I've not heard them talk about race."
Earlier this month her 18-year battle for justice saw Gary Dobson and David Norris convicted of the 1993 racist murder of her son Stephen by a white gang in south London. The murder led to a public inquiry that exposed police failings and prejudice in the ranks and in wider society. While the police were failing to catch her son's murderers, they managed to stop his brother 20 times as a criminal suspect.
Police also managed to stop Mrs Lawrence the year after the murder and told her she was suspected of driving a stolen car. She says continuing racist stereotyping by officers explains why African-Caribbeans are more likely to be stopped. She was told she should be "ashamed to show our faces" by a police employee, during a visit to Scotland Yard in 2009 to discuss her son's murder.
Lawrence criticises the government's record on race, saying they are squandering the opportunity to restart the war against prejudice presented by the conviction of two men for her son's murder. She says the convictions have at least temporarily put the battle against racial discrimination back on the agenda, after years of the fight having stalled. "There is a lot they can do. People take their lead from the government. If the prime minister said 'this is what I'd like to see happen in our society' ... people will try to work towards that. At the moment, I'm not sure exactly what they are doing around race."
Cameron has tried to cleanse the Tories of their "nasty party" image, but the criticism from one of the leading black figures in Britain raises questions about that. Cameron, Lawrence says, was wrong to attack multiculturalism in a speech last year. "Sometimes people misinterpret what the word means," she says. Recalling longstanding Conservative hostility – the party opposed the setting up of the Macpherson inquiry, and attacked its findings – she notes some top Tories have changed their tune, such as Boris Johnson, who once attacked the Macpherson reforms but of whom she quips: "He's changed completely. He's my best friend now."
She says she regrets that after the guilty verdicts no minister sent a letter "in recognition of what has been denied for so long". Her surviving son, Stuart, said: "David Cameron has not sent my mum a letter saying sorry it has taken so long. It shows the stance of the Conservative government. I don't think they care at all." Mrs Lawrence said the government may be preoccupied with the economy, but warned that spending cuts would hurt those who have least. "It is the working class and black people who are going to suffer the most – they are at the bottom of the ladder."
