Thirty years after the racist murder of his friend, Brooks wants to run the city whose police failed him and so many others – as a Conservative. What makes him think he can do better than Sadiq Khan?
Saturday 22 April was the 30th anniversary of the day Stephen Lawrence was murdered by racist youths while waiting for a bus in south-east London. Lawrence’s family along with public figures including Keir Starmer and Sadiq Khan attended a memorial service in central London, but not his friend Duwayne Brooks, who was with him when he was attacked. “I was refereeing,” he says matter-of-factly. Like he does every weekend, for his south London football league.
Not that Brooks believes the occasion shouldn’t be remembered. “In my opinion it’s got to be marked every year,” he says. “It’s not just the Lawrence family that suffered because of what happened to their son – there are families across Britain who have suffered similar in terms of their children being taken so young.”
