Black Rose
Sir Starmer’s Shadow Cabinet Thread:

We would like to congratulate Starmer on appointing a diverse shadow cabinet. With 53% women and 25% people of colour, marginalised people can hopefully feel comfortable in knowing that their issues will be represented within the shadow cabinet

We will note that the Conservative Party has more people of colour in the four high offices than the Labour Party, however, the percentage of people of colour in the high offices is still consistent with the general population

In addition to the representation of women and people of colour, we celebrate the inclusion of 5 LGBTQ+ MPs in the shadow cabinet. We hope that the Labour Party will continue to champion LGBTQ+ rights under Starmer

Sir Starmer's unity sadly only extends as far as being an alliance of the centre, the right, and the soft-left

Black Rose is particularly disappointed to see the loss of Dawn Butler from the shadow cabinet, who has fought passionately on key issues such as racism and trans rights

Black Rose notes the endorsement of historic antisemitic Tory politician Nancy Astor, by Rachel Reeves

Black Rose draws attention to the negative positions of Thangham Debbonaire on trans rights, sex worker's rights and communists being allowed in the Labour Party

Black Rose believes some of the positions of David Lammy on the drug trade and absent fathers deserve scrutiny but has some hope that he may work to address issues of racism in Justice and work towards drug decriminalisation

Black Rose questions the negative position of Jo Stevens on trans rights

Sir Starmer neglected to sign the @Labour_Trans pledges, which we feel is particularly noteworthy when coupled with his appointment of Debbonaire and Stevens

Black Rose is concerned that we shall see the party backtrack on people's liberation and economic justice, capitulating to the rising tides of hatred, and doing little to challenge the neoliberal capitalist consensus

We also need to resolve major issues such as climate change and inequalities, which we worry may not be prioritised as heavily under the new shadow cabinet

We would welcome Sir Starmer proving our concerns unfounded, but the construction of his shadow cabinet has shattered any illusion of unity and has many red flags (not the good kind!) for the future

A member has helpfully put together this statistics document: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1BxAum5hsbJ4JIebiA_UaGrFrQTTW5S1kpSq0PK7EH64/edit?usp=sharing