Boris Johnson’s pledge to establish a cross-government commission on racial inequality is a “back of a fag packet” plan designed to “assuage the Black Lives Matter protest”, Labour has claimed.
Shadow justice secretary David Lammy said there have been several reviews into racism in the UK in recent years – and the announcement of another makes it feel like “we want figures, data – but we don’t want action”.
Mr Johnson, writing in the Daily Telegraph, said the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities would look at “all aspects of inequality – in employment, in health outcomes, in academic and all other walks of life”.
And he told broadcasters: “What I really want to do as Prime Minister is change the narrative so we stop the sense of victimisation and discrimination.
“We stamp out racism and we start to have a real sense of expectation of success. That’s where I want to get to but it won’t be easy.”
The announcement follows two weeks of protests across the country by the Black Lives Matter movement following the killing in the US of George Floyd, who died as a white police officer knelt on his neck.
Mr Lammy criticised the Government for not providing details on the scope of the commission.
“I don’t know why he’s announced a commission behind a paywall, in the Telegraph, buried in the middle of yet another article about Churchill,” the Labour MP told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
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