Sewell, Badenoch, Mirza and Patel — How the government deploy their BME MPs to fight the #WarOnWoke
Lee Pinkerton explores how the UK government are using their Black and Asian MPs and advisors to shut down accusations of racism and deny the existence of institutional racism.
The release of the long-awaited report from the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities at the end of March, was met with equal measures of disbelief and outrage. Race commentators queued up to condemn it, while even some of those credited as contributors sought to distance themselves from its findings.
Along with its 24 recommendations, the top-line of the report was that institutional racism was a fiction, the success of certain ethnic groups standing as proof that progress in modern day Britain was open to anyone who was willing to work hard.
But this report was not some accidental own-goal from a government who are juggling too many crises to keep their eye on the issue of race. It was instead part of a long-running, on-going campaign which has become known as the culture wars or the ‘War on Woke’. An agenda with no shortage of right-wing supporters both inside and outside of the government, who refuse to reconsider Britain’s…