The new government commission on racial inequalities is being set up by a No 10 adviser who has cast doubt on the existence of institutional racism and condemned previous inquiries for fostering a "culture of grievance", it has emerged.
Munira Mirza, the head of the No 10 policy unit, is leading much of the work to form the commission on race and ethnic disparities announced by Boris Johnson on Sunday after the global wave of Black Lives Matter protests, the Guardian has been told.
It is understood that Mirza has said she hopes to recruit Trevor Phillips as part of the commission. Phillips, a former chair of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, would be a controversial choice, having previously referred to UK Muslims as being "a nation within a nation".
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The revelation of Mirza's role was met with dismay from experts and MPs. The shadow justice secretary, David Lammy, whose own review on inequalities in the judicial system was criticised by Mirza, tweeted on Monday evening that the appointment "further undermines" Johnson's race commission.
The Labour MP added: "My review was welcomed by all parties: Corbyn, Cameron and May. But Munira Mirza went out of her way to attack it. Johnson isn't listening to #BlackLivesMatter. He's trying to wage a culture war."
The Institute of Race Relations thinktank said it would be hard to have confidence in the commission's outcomes.
"Any enquiry into inequality has to acknowledge structural and systemic factors. Munira Mirza's previous comments describe a 'grievance culture' within the anti-racist field and she has previously argued that institutional racism is 'a perception more than a reality'," a spokesperson said. "It is difficult to have any confidence in policy recommendations from someone who denies the existence of the very structures that produce the social inequalities experienced by black communities."
The Labour MP Diane Abbott, a former shadow home secretary, said: "A new race equalities commission led by Munira Mirza is dead on arrival. She has never believed in institutional racism."
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Mirza, who is also understood to be leading efforts to recruit commission members, has been an outspoken critic of previous government attempts to tackle structural factors behind racial inequality.
She condemned an audit of racial inequalities in public services commissioned by Theresa May, which No 10 say will form part of the basis of the new commission. Writing for the Spectator in 2017, Mirza said the audit showed how "anti-racism is becoming weaponised across the political spectrum".
In the same article, Mirza criticised two other reports which Johnson's government has promised to act on: the one written by Lammy when he was a backbencher, and another on unequal pay among ethnic groups. Mirza said both showed "wrongheaded thinking about race".
Dawn Butler, a Labour MP and former equalities minister, said Mirza's role "undermines its credibility from the very outset by appointing someone who stands by Johnson's racist comments, rejected the Lammy review, saying 'institutional racism' is 'a perception more than a reality', and opposed Theresa May's very own racial disparities audit.
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"This should not be a fact-finding inquiry," said the crossbench peer. "This should be framing a comprehensive action plan to reform those key areas that Boris Johnson has acknowledged that have systemic racism."
Mirza, a one-time supporter of the Revolutionary Communist party, who spent eight years as Johnson's deputy mayor for culture in London, has been an outspoken critic of anti-racism and what she called "its culture of grievance".
In the Spectator article, she took issue with Lammy's review into the justice system by saying that in some ways, people from BAME backgrounds have "more favourable treatment compared with whites".
In a blogpost from 2018, Mirza argued that injustices were only treated seriously if there was "a social justice angle that can be divined (or manufactured)".
These views chime to an extent with Johnson's attempts to reframe the debate about the mass protests after the killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis in terms of opposition to removing statues, and his view that more should be done to talk up positive experiences about race.
"What I feel most strongly is that there are so many positive stories that are not being heard," he told reporters in Downing Street on Monday. "Things really are changing. You're seeing young black kids now doing better in some of the most difficult subjects in school than they were ever before, more going to top universities."
""In the Spectator article, she took issue with Lammy's review into the justice system by saying that in some ways, people from BAME backgrounds have "more favourable treatment compared with whites""
Dismay as No 10 adviser is chosen to set up UK race inequality commission
Munira Mirza has doubted existence of institutional racism and criticised ‘culture of grievance’
www.theguardian.com
You think they'd at least try to put on a charade.
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