DECADES of structural discrimination led to the disproportionate impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities, a review by Baroness Doreen Lawrence has found.

Baroness Lawrence’s report, released today after being commissioned by the Labour Party, identifies how government failures and structural racism led to the disproportionate impact of the crisis on BAME groups.

The anti-racism campaigner, whose son Stephen was murdered in a racially motivated attack in 1993, said that the government should now implement a plan to protect BAME people as winter approaches.

She said that it must become a legal requirement for employers to publish Covid-19 risk assessments on a central government portal and said that the government had so far failed to facilitate Covid-secure workplaces.

Baroness Lawrence also recommended longer-term changes to reduce inequalities, including the suspension of the “no recourse to public funds” rule for migrants during the pandemic.

“We are in the middle of an avoidable crisis and the government cannot ignore the facts,” she said.

“If no immediate action is taken to protect those most at risk as we enter the second wave, more people will unnecessarily die.”

She also warned that if lasting action is not taken to tackle structural inequalities, the pattern of injustice will “occur beyond the pandemic.”

“We have heard enough talk from the government,” she said. “It is now time to act.” 

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer backed her call for urgent action to protect BAME people from the pandemic.

He announced that the next Labour government would implement a race equality Act, which he has asked Baroness Lawrence to develop using the recommendations in her report.

Sir Keir said: “Government ministers should absorb this report and act immediately.

“Failure to do so will leave many of our fellow citizens badly exposed over the winter. This must be a turning point.”

Labour’s shadow equalities minister Marsha de Cordova said that the government has been “unwilling” to accept that racial inequalities highlighted by the pandemic were structural issues.

She called for “systemic solutions to systemic problems” and added that by committing to a race equality Act, “Labour is showing that [is it] ready to take the leadership that is needed.”