The shadow justice secretary, David Lammy, has condemned Boris Johnson’s plan for a government commission to examine racial inequalities as “written on the back of a fag packet” and intended as a distraction from the government’s lack of action over the issue. Lammy accused the prime minister of primarily seeking a culture war by announcing the plan in a comment piece for the Daily Telegraph, which was devoted mainly to reiterating his opposition to removing statues of historical figures. Johnson said he was “extremely dubious about the growing campaign to edit or Photoshop the entire cultural landscape”, writing that he would “resist with every breath in my body” any moves to remove Churchill’s statue from Parliament Square, an idea that has not been proposed.
In separate comments to broadcasters on Sunday, Johnson said the “cross-governmental commission” would look into discrimination against black, Asian and minority ethnic people in education, health and the criminal justice system. No 10 said later that commission members would be announced “in due course”, as would its remit. The report and recommendations will be submitted to Johnson by end of the year. Its scope will also cover issues beyond race, Johnson’s spokesman said: “It will look at wider inequalities, including issues faced by working-class white boys in schools, for example.” Lammy, who led a 2017 report on racial disparities in the criminal justice system, commissioned by David Cameron, said the announcement left him feeling “slightly weary”. “Black people aren’t playing victim, as Boris indicates, they’re protesting precisely because the time for review is over and the time for action is now,” Lammy told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “I don’t know why he’s announced a commission behind a paywall in the Telegraph, buried in yet another article about Churchill. If he was serious, why are there no details about how it will be staffed, its remit, its terms of reference, its timetable? “That’s the question. It’s because this was written on the back of a fag packet yesterday, to assuage the Black Lives Matter protests. Get on with the action. Legislate. Move. You’re in government – do something.” He added: “I made 35 specific limit recommendations in the Lammy review. Implement them. There are 110 recommendations in the Angiolini review into deaths into police custody. Implement them. There are 30 recommendations in the Home Office review into the Windrush scandal. Implement them. There are 26 in Baroness McGregor-Smith’s review into workplace discrimination. Implement them. That’s what Boris has to do. And then the Black Lives Matter protests can stop and we can get on with dealing with coronavirus.” Lammy said he was baffled by the reference to Churchill’s statue, which was defaced by a handful of Black Lives Matters protesters. “The Labour party isn’t talking about statues. The Lib Dems aren’t calling for Winston Churchill’s statue to be removed, neither are the Greens. The only person that wants to focus on Winston Churchill’s statue is the Conservative party, and frankly it’s bizarre. They want a culture war because they want to distract from the central issue.”
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said it hoped the initiative would deliver change, but said it was sceptical at the need for yet another inquiry. David Isaac, the EHRC chair, said: “We know the scale of the problems we face to tackle the entrenched racial inequality in our country. It is not new. There have been countless reports and the data exists exposing all the issues. Now is the time for urgent action.” Johnson’s spokesman rejected the charge that nothing had been done about previous reports, saying the Ministry of Justice had recently released an update on the Lammy review, detailing areas where its recommendations were being implemented, including a deferred prosecution system.
Johnson’s article for the Telegraph mentions the idea for the commission only in passing, in two paragraphs. The bulk of the piece is devoted to the prime minister’s views on statues and monuments, in the wake of the toppling of a statue of the slaver Edward Colston by protesters in Bristol, and the boarding up of Churchill’s before protests last Saturday. Johnson wrote that it was “the height of lunacy” to accuse Churchill of racism, adding: “He was a hero, and I expect I am not alone in saying that I will resist with every breath in my body any attempt to remove that statue from Parliament Square, and the sooner his protective shielding comes off the better.”