Theresa May has announced an annual Stephen Lawrence Day to be held on the anniversary of the teenager’s murder.



The prime minister made the announcement at a memorial service to mark the 25th anniversary of the hate crime that shocked Britain and led to the Metropolitan police being described as institutionally racist.



Stephen’s mother, Doreen Lawrence, welcomed the announcement. “I feel honoured [May] has recognised the changes that have been made in Stephen’s name and the changes that are still needed,” she said.

Stephen Lawrence Day would be “an opportunity for young people to use their voices and should be embedded in our education and wider system regardless of the government of the day”, she added. The first Stephen Lawrence Day will be on 22 April 2019.



Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were among approximately 800 people who attended the service on Monday at St Martin-in-the-Fields in Trafalgar Square, central London.

It was also attended by Jeremy Corbyn, the London mayor Sadiq Khan, actor Sir Lenny Henry, singer Beverley Knight, and the Metropolitan police commissioner Cressida Dick.

Doreen Lawrence and her son Stuart greeted guests at the church entrance before the service. Many of those attending were wearing the orange ribbon lapel badges of the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust.



Harry and Meghan were the last of the VIP guests to arrive, stopping to talk for a few moments to the Lawrences. Crowds who had gathered outside the church cheered as the couple, who are to marry in less than a month, arrived.



Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at the memorial service with Doreen Lawrence. Photograph: Victoria Jones/PA

During the service, Harry read a letter of support on behalf of his father, the Prince of Wales. It said: “I remember vividly the profound shock that I felt at [Stephen’s] senseless murder, a feeling shared by so many people across this country and beyond.

“I remember, too, just how deeply moved I was by the determination of his family to build something positive from the tragedy they endured and to ensure that Stephen’s story did not end with despair, but continued with hope.”



Tributes were also sent by May, Corbyn, the home secretary Amber Rudd, and the former home secretary Jack Straw.

Corbyn read an extract from Nelson Mandela’s autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom. The late anti-apartheid hero and former president of South Africa met the Lawrence family at his request while on a visit to London two weeks after the teenager’s murder. The meeting helped focus national attention on the hate crime.



As well as hymns, readings, prayers and reflections, Knight sang two songs, A Change is Gonna Come and Fallen Soldier. Henry interviewed three beneficiaries of the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust, which last year supported more than 2,000 young adults with training, mentoring and bursaries. The service opened and closed with music from a gospel choir.

In an introduction to the order of service, Doreen Lawrence wrote: “I wish for Stephen’s name not to be identified by his murder, but by the mark he has left on this country and the wider world and for the role model he was and continues to be for many young people today, even though the majority of them would not have been born at the time of his death.



“It has been a long journey that is not over yet, for there are many injustices that are still taking place today.”



Stephen Lawrence was murdered by a gang of five youths in Eltham, south-east London, on 22 April 1993. Only two, David Norris and Gary Dobson, were convicted of murder almost two decades later, and last week Scotland Yard said it had no new lines of inquiry to pursue.

The failure of police to investigate the murder properly and bring to account those responsible, and their shocking treatment of his family and friend Duwayne Brooks, led to a watershed moment in race relations in the UK. The subsequent Macpherson inquiry concluded the police were guilty of institutional racism.

Theresa May with Stuart and Doreen Lawrence outside the memorial service. Photograph: WPA/Getty Images

Speaking after the service, Corbyn said he had felt “very honoured” to read from Mandela’s autobiography. Although the country had come far on racism since Stephen’s death, “we still have a long way to go”, he said. There were too many young black men in the criminal justice system, too much Islamophobia and antisemitism. Racism was “a poison”, he added.

The government needed to resolve the “appalling” Windrush scandal he said, adding: the home secretary “has got to explain how to get out of the problem or get out of the way and let someone else do it”.

Henry told the Guardian the service had been a celebration but also a “moment of incredible sadness”. He said: “There is no finish line to racism. It is an ongoing problem we have to solve, something we have to keep on fighting.”



He also criticised the Windrush affair, saying: “My heart goes out to anyone affected by the scandal. When I was speaking in the service, I told them – Theresa May, Jeremy Corbyn, Sadiq Khan, sitting in front of me – ‘You guys have got to sort this out’, and they all nodded.”

Doreen Lawrence said the service had been “amazing” and she was grateful to those who had worked on it. “I was holding myself together all the way through. It’s been a really emotional day.”

