IN THIS super-election year, as political parties gear up for campaigns and strategise their platforms, there’s one issue that cannot be swept under the rug any longer: the pervasive racism faced by Romani (Gypsy), Roma and Irish Traveller communities across Britain. 

Discrimination against these communities is as common as rain, yet it seems to be conveniently overlooked or exploited for political gain. This year we say enough is enough.

In the same week the former Labour Party candidates for Rochdale and Hyndburn were rightfully dropped for anti-semitism, another story broke highlighting the deep-rooted racism that pervades our society. 

The Equalities and Human Rights Commission served Pontins with an unlawful act notice after an investigation by the equality watchdog found multiple instances of race discrimination against Irish Travellers. 

The day before we wrote to the leader of the Labour Party Sir Keir Starmer calling for immediate action to be taken over a racist slur previously posted online by the Labour candidate for North East mayor Kim McGuinness (“f*** off, I’m not a gypsy”). So what does Pontins have to do with party politics? Everything.

When the Pontins story broke we saw no solidarity from any of the major political parties, no statements on the dire racist practices that had gone on at the holiday camp. Because political parties are scared to stand up for our communities.

Every time there is an election coming up we receive reports of racist rhetoric used by candidates in their literature and flashy campaign videos to win votes.

Recently the Conservative MP for Bournemouth West put out an appeal to his electorate to oppose a proposed new settled site because he said Travellers didn’t belong in a “residential area.” The racist dogwhistling is used to play on the racist rhetoric towards Gypsy, Roma and Irish Traveller people that has been pervasive in Europe for centuries.

Gypsy, Roma and Irish Travellers have fallen victim to state oppression for centuries. There was the “Tinker experiment” from 1940 to 1980 in Scotland that sought to take children from their families and put them into residential homes to “knock the Tinker out of the child”; the forced enslavement of Roma for five centuries in central Europe; and the murder of Roma in their hundreds of thousands by the Nazi regime in the Holocaust. Racism towards these communities is very real and it is very violent.

When politicians fail to tackle racism towards Gypsy, Roma and Irish Travellers they give a green light to Pontins, Butlins and Wetherspoon to refuse service. When parties fail to act they tell the overzealous police officer there is nothing wrong with racially profiling a young Traveller. When politicians fail to drive out racism in their own parties they are complicit in that racism.    

Pontins is a victory for racial justice, and we are glad our hard work to bring this story into the light has resulted in action from the EHRC. But this case is one in a long line of organisations being pulled up for racist practices and we still see new cases every day. 

Currently the EHRC is stuck between a rock and a hard place, underfunded by central government and fearful of upsetting them in case of retribution. A truly independent EHRC would have the ability to pursue larger cases and get to the heart of tackling discrimination and racism.

In this election year we need a decisive commitment to end the direct and institutional racism towards our communities from across the political spectrum. This starts with reforms to the EHRC so it has the powers to effectively enforce anti-racist legislation, but ultimately rests on parties to call out the racism in their ranks for what it is. If not now then when?

Yvonne MacNamara is CEO of The Traveller Movement.