BORIS JOHNSON’S pledge to establish a cross-government commission on racial inequality was slammed by Labour today as a disingenuous “back of a fag packet” plan.
Shadow justice secretary David Lammy accused the Prime Minister of cooking up the plan, revealed in a Daily Telegraph article about Winston Churchill, to appease Black Lives Matter protesters.
Weeks of global protests by people backing the Black Lives Matter movement have followed the killing in the US of George Floyd, killed by a police officer.
Mr Johnson, writing in the Telegraph, spoke up for Churchill’s statue in Parliament Square, which some protesters want to be removed. Last weekend, the word “racist” was sprayed on its pedestal.
The wartime prime minister believed in Anglo-Saxon supremacy and made little secret of his contempt for black and Asian people, stating that British imperialism was good for “primitive” and “subject races.”
But Mr Johnson warned against attempts to “photoshop” Britain’s cultural landscape, and claimed it was the “height of lunacy” to accuse Churchill of racism.
He wrote that his plan to stamp out racism would involve a commission on race and ethnic disparities looking at “all aspects of inequality.”
Mr Lammy said that there have been several reviews into racism in Britain in recent years, and that announcing another makes it feel like “we want figures, data — but we don’t want action.”
And he criticised the Prime Minister, notorious for his lack of attention to detail, for not providing details on the scope of the commission.
Mr Lammy said: “I don’t know why he’s announced a commission behind a paywall, in the Telegraph, buried in the middle of yet another article about Churchill.
“It’s because this was written on the back of a fag packet yesterday to assuage the Black Lives Matter protest. Get on with the action, legislate, move — you’re in government, do something.”
Chairman of the Equality & Human Rights Commission David Isaac said that there had already been countless reports on the issues surrounding racial inequality, and demanded urgent action.
He called for “a clear and comprehensive race strategy with clear targets and timescales from government.”
Mr Johnson also faced criticism for saying that the government wants to stop the “sense of victimisation and discrimination.”
Lord Woolley of Woodford, who chairs the Cabinet Office’s race-disparity unit’s advisory group, said that Mr Johnson’s language was “frankly unhelpful.” Black and minority-ethnic people face “real discrimination,” he said.
