UK’s Johnson calls anti-racism commission; critics want more

Opposition Labour Party lawmaker David Lammy, author of a 2017 report on Britain’s ethnic minorities and criminal justice, accused the Conservative government of stalling.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced he will establish a commission to look at racial equality in the UK, after two weeks of protests spurred by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Boris Johnson said the new body would investigate “discrimination in the education system, in health, in the criminal justice system,“ but gave few other details. (via REUTERS)

Writing in the Daily Telegraph newspaper, Johnson said the body would look at “all aspects of inequality -- in employment, in health outcomes, in academic and all other walks of life.” Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets across the U.K. since Floyd died on May 25, demanding that Britain. confront its own history of imperialism and racial inequality.

Johnson said the new body would investigate “discrimination in the education system, in health, in the criminal justice system,“ but gave few other details.

Opposition Labour Party lawmaker David Lammy, author of a 2017 report on Britain’s ethnic minorities and criminal justice, accused the Conservative government of stalling.

He said “it feels like yet again in the U.K. we want figures, data, but we don’t want action. … The time for review is over and the time for action is now.”