Dr Jacqui Stanford is the only protester outside the Conservative Party Conference this year.
Her sign, “Institutional Racism”, wobbles slightly in the wind amid the (primarily) white, southern and male wave of Tory members leaving the secure zone.
“I’m wondering where all the other protesters are,” she tells The London Economic. “I’ve been here when there was a roaring team of people with this same sign.”
As Palestinian marches go ahead in London, austerity activists think the Tories are so irrelevant that they can’t be bothered to stand outside, and Stop Brexit Steve is out of the picture; why is Jacqui there?
It isn’t because she has something to say to the party machine. Instead, it is because of a report commissioned by Kemi Badenoch in 2021 when she was the equalities minister.
“I don’t know if the Tory Party is institutionally racist,” Jacqui tells me, pausing to adjust her handmade placard. “But I know Kemi Badenoch orchestrated a report to make it look like there isn’t such a thing.”
What report made Jacqui protest the 2025 Tory Conference?
The report that drives Jacqui’s protest was published in 2021, led by Tony Sewell and commissioned by then equalities minister Kemi Badenoch. It came after the Black Lives Matter protests and was meant to examine racial inequality in Britain.
“When that report came out, there was huge outrage,” she says. “People warned about the troubles it could bring. And now we have deaths in Manchester, riots in Liverpool, and racial tension everywhere.”
Instead of finding evidence of institutional racism, the Sewell Report said problems like education gaps and poverty came down to family life and local factors. It argued Britain should be seen as a “model for other white-majority countries.”
Anti-racism groups, teachers and campaigners said the report dismissed the real experiences of people facing discrimination in policing, housing, health and work. Even a UN panel accused it of “repackaging racist tropes”.
In response to criticism, Kemi Badenoch accused Labour figures and the media of “wilfully misrepresenting” the report to spread “falsehoods” about its conclusions.
In a statement to MPs, she said that the report did not deny racism exists, but rather challenged the idea that Britain is a country “where the system is deliberately rigged against ethnic minorities”.