Structural racism meant Black, Asian and minority ethnic people were disproportionately affected by the COVID pandemic, a new review has warned.

A new report from Baroness Lawrence, commissioned by the Labour party, identifies how Black, Asian and minority ethnic workers were impacted by a failure to facilitate COVID-secure workplaces.

It calls on the Government to take urgent action to protect people from a second spike of COVID-19 over the winter, including making it a legal requirement for employers to publish their COVID-19 risk assessments on a central portal.

Baroness Lawrence said: ‘If no immediate action is taken to protect those most at risk as we enter the second wave more people will unnecessarily die.

’If no long-term action is taken to tackle structural inequalities we will keep seeing this pattern of injustice occur beyond the pandemic.’

Labour have pledged to implement a Race Equality Act to tackle structural racial inequality at source.