THE LIBERAL Democrats have been accused of starving their racial diversity group of funds to carry out their work.

The Racial Diversity Campaign (RDC), set up in the wake of a damning review of race equality in party structures, have complained that they are being forced to pay out of their own pockets to keep the campaign going.

The RDC received £5,000 in August to “increase the number of ethnic minority parliamentarians and those in senior local government roles.” 

Writing in their annual report to the national Lib Dem conference, RDC chair Ade Adeyemo said: “Despite a lack of financial support from the party, the RDC Executive has worked very hard to get the organisation up and running. 

“To date, we have personally borne all costs, ensuring that RDC activities can progress. However, this situation is neither sustainable nor desirable.”

Black members have previously complained about lack of resources to support the 2018 review by Lord Alderdice – which recommended that the RDC is created.

There have also been grumbles about lack of support for the Vice President role dedicated to promoting equality.

The Liberal Democrats – and their previous incarnations of the SDP, Liberals and Whigs – have never had an MP from an African, Caribbean or black mixed heritage background.

They have also never had a black member elected to a regional assembly or to any public office above the level of local councillor.

Two black MPs who were elected for Labour and the Conservatives – Chuka Umunna and Sam Gyimah – briefly represented the Lib Dems after they crossed the floor in 2019, but both lost their seats just months later in the general election.

Last year Sir Ed Davey committed to implementing the ‘Rooney Rule’ for candidate selections when he was running for party leader but this idea is understood to have been bogged down in internal committees and was not put to delegates at their autumn conference last month.

Mr Adeyemo, who has run for parliament and is seen as a rising star, wrote in his report to conference: “It is disappointing (and frustrating) that halfway through our three-year term, no funding has been forthcoming from the party for RDC activities. 

“Everything we have achieved so far has been despite the lack of financial support or a budget from Lib Dem HQ. 

“A year on from my 2020 conference report, the RDC executive are still having to pay out of their own pockets for web site hosting, online survey, video conferencing and other incidental costs. The party’s continued lack of action is a very serious concern.” 

The now-disbanded Ethnic Minority Liberal Democrats (EMLD) affiliated group had also raised concerns over their annual budget, believed to have been around £6,000, which was handed back to the party to pay for a stall and fringe meeting at party conference, leaving virtually no money to do any other work.

The group that replaced EMLD, the Liberal Democrat Campaign for Racial Equality (LDCRE), is understood to be “deeply pissed off” that recommendations from the Alderdice review are not being actioned more effectively, according to the party members magazine Liberator.

Lord Alderdice noted that the party had been conducting reviews for “nearly two decades” and said that it was time to make racial diversity a “top priority.”

The Lib Dems have commissioned a consultant, Diversity Matters, to make recommendations about how the Alderdice report – and a later election postmortem report by Baroness Thornhill which highlighted lack of engagement with black and ethnic minority communities – will be taken forward.

James Jennings, a prominent race equality activist in the party, who quit the Lib Dems last year after 15 years of membership, told The Voice: “When I ran for Vice President of the party I asked them ‘What resources are you putting into that?’ They said ‘none’. So I said ‘what, exactly, are you’re going to do then?’ 

“We were just getting the crumbs. The party’s institutionally racist and it’s ingrained. I mean, look at what’s going on in the country in general in terms of the Black Lives Matter agenda – they have not come up with any credible response whatsoever.”

A Liberal Democrat spokesperson said:

“The party’s spending on promoting diversity has increased substantially over the past two years. We have provided funding for the first time to the Racial Diversity Campaign, as part of our commitment to improve diversity in the party.

“We know there is always more to do in this area, but we’re encouraged that our candidates are now more likely to be from diverse backgrounds than our membership as a whole.”