Keir Starmer said Labour will undergo 'unconscious bias training' to tackle racism and people have thoughts

Keir Starmer has said that he and all members of the Labour Party will undertake 'unconscious bias training' after he faced criticism for his comments on the Black Lives Matter movement.

During an appearance on LBC Radio on Monday morning, a caller named Sharon from Walthamstow, East London, told the Labour leader that she was "extremely disappointed" to hear that he had last month referred to the BLM and anti-racism protests as a 'moment' and was keen to learn if he would be updating training on the subject.

Starmer said that he did regret this and that he was referring to it as a 'defining moment' and not a 'fleeting moment.'

What I was saying is that Black Lives Matter needs to be a moment, and I meant a defining moment and turning point, I didn't mean a fleeting moment.

 And the reason I said that is because I've spoken to lots of Black community leaders in the last few weeks and they have said to me over and over again 'for heaven's sake, this has got to be a turning point' its got to be the point at which people actually realise things have got to change.

He then revealed that all staff members of the Labour party will take part in a "two to three hour" unconscious bias training session in an attempt to stamp out any ingrained stereotypes that they may have.

In the Labour Party we are introducing [training] for all of our staff and I am going to lead from the top on this and do that training first. We took a decision to introduce it across the Labour Party and I think that's the right thing to do and I think I should lead by example by doing it first.

I think everybody should have unconscious bias training, I think it is important. There is always the risk of unconscious bias and just saying 'oh well it only applies to other people and not me' is not the right thing to do, so I am going to lead from the front on this and do the training.

Although this would seem like an effective way of tackling stereotypes, people aren't sure if a three-hour session on bias training will actually solve some of the deep-seated problems in politics and society, even if Starmer's initiative is in goodwill.

Others felt that it was at least a step towards tackling a much larger issue.

That being said at least Sharon from Walthamstow agreed with the decision and welcomed Starmer and the rest of Labour undergoing the training.

That was really what I was looking for, I am really pleased about that, I think it's very important and he's right, everyone should look into that.

In the past few days, Labour has faced a backlash from its ruling committee who have accused the party of defending 'racist, sexist and abusive' messages sent via WhatsApp by party official and called for Starmer to make a public apology.

Starmer's office were accused of giving misleading information in an internal report on how those who sent the messages were dealt with.