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UK PM Boris Johnson’s new anti-racism commission triggers row
Boris Johnson announced the “cross-departmental commission” in an article in The Daily Telegraph, in which he wrote that though much has changed in the UK on issues of race, there is much more that needs to be done.
A brief announcement by Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday of a commission into racism in the UK sparked a row with the opposition Labour and others asking him to implement recommendations of earlier reports instead of setting up a new one.
Johnson announced the “cross-departmental commission” in an article in The Daily Telegraph, in which he wrote that though much has changed in the UK on issues of race, there is much more that needs to be done.
Reiterating his opposition to pulling down statues of historical figures, including that of “hero” Winston Churchill, Johnson, who authored a biography of Churchill in 2014, wrote that the man whom many consider the ‘greatest Briton’ had expressed “all sorts of views”.
“As it happens, he generally changed with the times. He changed his view on India, and her capacity for independence; and whatever he may have said about Islam in the 1890s, he also built the Regent’s Park Mosque in the 1940s”, he wrote.
Labour dismissed the announcement of the new commission to look into inequalities in employment, health and other aspects of life.
Shadow justice secretary David Lammy said that if Johnson were serious about wanting to address racial inequalities, he should implement the recommendations of the many reviews already conducted instead of setting up a new commission or inquiry.
He said: “I made 35 specific recommendations in the Lammy review. Implement them. There are 110 recommendations in the Anjiolini review into deaths into police custody. Implement them. There are 30 recommendations in the Home Office review into the Windrush scandal”.
“Implement them. Twenty six into Baroness McGregor’s review into workplace discrimination. Implement them. That’s what Boris has to do. And the Black Lives protests can stop and we can get on with dealing with the coronavirus”, he added.
A Downing Street spokesperson said the government is implementing recommendations of previous reports, and added that the new commission will look into issues such as the under-performance of white working class boys in schools.
On the issue of statues being pulled down, as witnessed in Bristol on June 7, Johnson wrote that he would “resist with every breath in my body” any attempt to remove Churchill’s statue in Parliament Square in London.
He wrote: “It is not just that is wrong to destroy public property by violence. I am also extremely dubious about the growing campaign to edit or photoshop the entire cultural landscape”.
“Would it not be better and more honest to ask our children to understand the context, to explain the mixture of good and bad in the career of Churchill and everyone else?”
