Queen’s Speech

Lord Austin of Dudley Excerpts

Thursday 12th May 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-Afl)]

My Lords, it is a pleasure and privilege to follow the excellent speech of the noble and learned Lord, Lord Woolf, and to be speaking in this debate. I start by saying that of course it is possible to be concerned about the impact of immigration without being racist, but the speech of the noble Lord, Lord Green, was not about pressures on schools and hospitals in poorer parts of the country. It was mainly—and let us be honest about this—about the colour of people’s skin. It could have been made by people opposed to Jewish immigration to Britain before the war; by Enoch Powell and his supporters in the 1960s and 1970s; or by anyone, throughout the years, who wants to pretend that they are not a racist but are speaking up for the concerns of ordinary people in poor areas—a group he knows very little about. He is on completely the wrong side of history. People in Dudley, where I live, and places like it are not bothered about the colour of people’s skin any more and do not share this miserable obsession with what people look like.

I welcome the measures the Government set out in the Queen’s Speech to tackle crime and improve law and order. We live in a democracy—of course people have the right to protest, and I have been on plenty of protests over the years—but there is a huge difference between a properly organised march against a war or a protest against racism and bringing motorways or city centres to a standstill. People do not have a right to prevent hard-working people getting to work or patients getting to hospital. The freedom of the press is one of the pillars on which a free society and democracy depend, so people do not have the right to blockade printing presses either.

The Government also say they will bring forward measures to tackle economic crime, which are very much needed. When I was contacted by people in Dudley as a Member of Parliament, I was shocked by the terrible response that victims of fraud received. Recent figures show that just one in 500 frauds is prosecuted by police, despite an increase in this crime of 20%. Overall, the number of arrests and prosecutions are down; just one in 16 crime suspects was taken to court last year. The rate of offences that lead to a charge is at a record low, so the Government need to deliver on their promise in the Queen’s Speech to make the streets safer.

Given this commitment, there is one issue I want to raise. I want to speak about Dea-John Reid, a 14 year- old lad from Birmingham who was killed by a gang in the city last year. What can the Government do to secure justice for him and his family? It is a shocking story. One evening in May last year, after an altercation between two groups of teenagers, Dea-John was chased down a busy street by five males, including two grown men—adults—shouting racist abuse. One of them, who was 14 years old at the time, killed him with a knife. A 14 year-old black boy was chased by a gang and stabbed to death. His mum, Joan Reid, said he was

“hunted by a lynch mob reminiscent of … Mississippi Burning”.

Following the earlier altercation, the boy who killed Dea-John had phoned 38 year-old George Khan, who was drinking in a pub with 35 year-old Michael Shields. They collected the three boys in Khan’s car and “set off”, the court was told,

“to hunt down the Dea-John group … Khan carried the plan to seek retribution forwards and actively encouraged the attack”,

the prosecuting barrister said. According to witnesses, Khan pointed and shouted “Oi, you n-word”. Dea-John and his friends ran, but he went a different way to get away. Khan and the defendants ran after him. A witness said that the men had their tops off, used them to cover their faces and were carrying weapons. One was carrying what looked like a screwdriver. Khan allegedly shouted, “Bang him out” and—I apologise for this—“f- him up” to one of the teenagers. They were grown men. If that is not incitement, what is? This 14 year-old boy had asthma, ran out of breath, was caught, stabbed and killed. Imagine it: he was chased by a racist mob, cornered, stabbed and killed on the streets of Birmingham last year.

This is incredible. Four of the five defendants, all of whom chased him, were found not guilty by an all-white jury. The fifth, now aged 15, was convicted of manslaughter and will be free in less than three years. The judge said that, if he had been an adult, he would have been on trial for murder.

Someone in Birmingham said to me, “A gang shouting racist abuse—a black boy stabbed. What lessons have we learnt?” I remember Birmingham in the 1980s and how failings in the criminal justice system resulted in riots on the streets. There can never be any justification for that. His Mum, Joan Reid, called for calm in the black community in Birmingham—and they listened because they trusted the authorities. But the deal is justice for Dea-John and his family, so why are those men walking free?

I want the Government to look at what measures in the Queen’s Speech can secure justice for this boy and his family. Will Ministers look at this and will the Attorney-General refer it to the Court of Appeal? I know that obviously we cannot have political direction of the police and courts, but this cannot be allowed to stand—not in Britain in this century. So will Ministers call in the chief constable and the CPS in the West Midlands to find out what has gone on here? Are there other charges that could be brought, such as affray or racially motivated assault? I want to know what the Government can do to secure justice for that little lad and his mum. I want Her Majesty’s Government to address the concern that I have raised in the legislation they propose to bring forward in delivering on the gracious Speech.