Splits within No 10 over how to tackle issues around race show that Boris Johnson’s Conservatives could become a “no-go” party for black Britons, one of the party’s most prominent black activists has said. In an article for the Guardian, Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones, the former Tory candidate known as “the black farmer”, has criticised Downing Street for failing to address criticisms from Johnson’s civil society and communities adviser, Samuel Kasumu. In a leaked letter to the prime minister last week, Kasumu raised concerns about the conduct of Kemi Badenoch, the equalities minister, suggesting she may have broken the ministerial code when she publicly criticised a black journalist on social media, and said tensions over race policies within No 10 had become “unbearable”.
Emmanuel-Jones, a businessman and food producer, writes: “When the story broke last week that Samuel had wanted to resign, my heart sank. He subsequently agreed to stay on. But when I read his long, heartfelt resignation letter to his boss, Boris Johnson, setting out his concern that the party is ‘choosing to pursue a politics steeped in division’ – words which he has not retracted – it once again posed the question: does the Conservative party still have a problem with race?” He said the Conservatives had been behind the curve, leaving a great void that has been filled by the Labour party. “When the subject of race does come up, the Conservatives look clumsy and out of step. Take the Windrush debacle, in which black British people were denied health treatment, benefits, and were threatened with deportation: it will take years to repair the damage this scandal caused,” he writes. Emmanuel-Jones, who failed to win the seat of Chippenham for the Tories in 2010, also condemns government ministers including Badenoch and the business secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, for failing to stand up for black Britons. “Only last week, Kwarteng railed against the idea of ‘decolonising the curriculum’ (that is, rebalancing our teaching so that the voices of those who were colonised are heard more often). “And we have a black equalities minister, Kemi Badenoch, who ditches diversity training and who claims anti-racism campaigners want children to be taught that black people are good and white people are bad. Other black MPs remain silent, despite the huge national support for Black Lives Matter since the death of George Floyd last year.” The foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, is criticised by Emmanuel-Jones for appearing to be uncaring when he claimed that taking a knee was copied from Game of Thrones. “The media management of this – in which the foreign secretary seemed to think it originated in Game of Thrones – made the party come across as uncaring or lacking understanding.” On Friday, the former government race adviser Simon Woolley said Badenoch’s position had become untenable. Downing Street said: “It would not be appropriate to comment on individual staff members. This government is committed to inclusion and bringing communities together and is the most ethnically diverse in this country’s history. “Last year we established a commission on race and ethnic disparities to examine and tackle inequality and discrimination wherever it is found. It is due to report shortly.”