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Government needs to get its ‘knee off the neck’ of BAME people and take action over systemic racism, says Butler
People take part in a Black Lives Matter protest in Shirley, Birmingham

THE government must get its “knee off the neck” of black, Asian and minority-ethnic (BAME) communities in Britain, Labour MP Dawn Butler told ministers today.

During a debate on the impact of Covid-19 on BAME people, the former shadow women and equalities minister demanded that the government act on “structural and systemic racism.”

The impact of the coronavirus has been harder on BAME people, and those in areas of deprivation are dying at double the rate of those in more affluent areas, according to the Office for National Statistics.

When the figures are adjusted for age, black people are more than four times more likely to die from Covid-19 than white people, while Pakistanis and Bangladeshis are more than three times as likely, and Indians more than twice as likely.

Ms Butler referred to two reports which revealed that 33 out of 35 NHS doctors who have died of Covid-19 were BAME.

She told the Commons: “I stand to tell the government that we are done with the games, we are done with the platitudes and we are done with kicking this issue into the long grass — enough is enough.

“Now is time to act. Now is the time for action. Now is the time to get the government’s knee off the neck of the black, African, Caribbean, Asian, minority-ethnic communities.”

Ms Butler was referring to George Floyd, who died after a US police officer kneeled on his neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds.

PM Boris Johnson announced earlier this week the launch of a Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities, after the worldwive wave of Black Lives Matter protests which followed Mr Floyd’s death.

Shadow justice secretary David Lammy criticised the decision to launch another review, pointing out that several — including his own — had already taken place.

And he condemned the review as “dead on arrival” as it is being organised by Mr Johnson’s aide Munira Mirza, who has questioned whether institutional racism exists.

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