LEARIE CONSTANTINE

That this House notes with deep respect, gratitude and sadness the anniversary on 1 July of the death of Learie, Baron Constantine, barrister, politician, broadcaster, campaigner against racial discrimination and cricketing legend; further notes that Baron Constantine served both on the Race Relations Board and, through his pioneering legal case against Imperial London Hotels on the grounds of discrimination, paved the way for the Race Relations Act of 1965; notes that he led the way for black sportsmen and women in Britain during the 1920s and that he was a consistent and indefatigable campaigner against racial discrimination for many decades; notes that Baron Constantine was the first black person to sit in the House of Lords and the first West Indian cricketer to take a wicket in a Test match; and records with regret that Baron Constantine would have been deeply shocked at the treatment by the Home Office of many men and women of the West Indies who came to Britain to work hard and rebuild the country after the travails of the Second World War and yet whose contribution has often been dismissed and discarded.