Former councillor wins 10 year race discrimination battle » Local Government » 24dash.com

A former Labour councillor has won a 10-year legal battle to prove he was a victim of racial discrimination when the party refused to readopt him as a candidate.

The Law Lords in London allowed an appeal by Raghib Ahsan, a councillor for Birmingham's Sparkhill ward between 1991 and 1998, against a court ruling which rejected his claim that he was discriminated against by a selection panel in the run-up to the 1998 local government elections.

Mr Ahsan, from Sparkhill's large Pakistani population, had been named in sensational newspaper allegations that councillors were helping Pakistani residents jump the queue for housing grants.

The newspapers also implied that he was recruiting, or even inventing, fellow countrymen to join the Labour Party and support his ultimate ambition to be adopted as a Parliamentary candidate for Birmingham Sparkbrook.

A Labour inquiry found no evidence at all of impropriety by Mr Ahsad or other Pakistani councillors.

Yet the selection panel, in December 1997, turned him down in favour of a white candidate from the party's Fox Hollies branch, Ian Jamieson. The panel wanted to avoid what might be seen by the electorate as a "problem" within the Pakistani community.

Ten years of employment tribunal and court hearings followed, culminating today in a victory for Mr Ahsan in the House of Lords.

Lord Hoffmann said the Court of Appeal, in overturning a tribunal finding in Mr Ahsan's favour, seemed to be saying that it would be acceptable to discriminate against a Pakistani candidate if the panel held no racist views but thought it was better not to have such a candidate because of the public's perception of a problem within that ethnic community.

This was unacceptable, said Lord Hoffmann, sitting with Lords Rodger, Walker, Carswell and Brown.

"It is nothing more than the old plea that you have nothing against employing a black person but the customers would not like it," he said.

"In essence, it is a defence of justification based on political expediency."

The Lords restored the decision of the employment tribunal, which had also upheld further complaints by Mr Ahsan of discrimination and victimisation in the shortlisting of candidates for the council in 2000.

A Labour Party spokesman said after today's ruling: "This is a very complex legal decision. We are disappointed that the Law Lords have seen fit to overturn the judgment of the Court of Appeal but we accept their judgment.

"The Birmingham Labour Group fully reflects the diversity and vitality of Birmingham and any inference that the Labour Party is discriminatory is not borne out by the facts.

"We have already amended procedures for the selection of candidates in Birmingham to make them even more transparent and will look in detail at this judgment to determine further action to be taken."

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