[IER] Govt faces legal action over appointment of racism skeptic to head racism inquiry

[Sarah Glenister]

News brief - 14/08/20                                                                             View this email in your browser 
Govt faces legal action over appointment of racism skeptic to head racism inquiry
The government has appointed a man who described the Black Lives Matter protests as "navel-gazing" to head the Race and Ethnic Disparity Commission it set up to respond to those very protests.

Anti-racism orgaisation The Monitoring Group has delivered a pre-action letter to warn Boris Johnson of its intention to take challenge the matter through a Judicial Review.

Tony Sewell, appointed to lead the government's inquiry, has previously criticised race equality audits for using statistics to "cast black people and minorities as victims of racism" and has recently been forced to apologise for homophobic comments he made about late footballer, Justin Fashanu.

His is the second appointment to the government's new inquiry into race that has sparked controversy. Munira Mirza was hired to recruit experts to the Commission despite being a well-known skeptic of institutional racism.

The appointment of Sewell coincides with news that the inquiry into racism in the Conservative Party has still not begun despite being promised eight months ago, and the Prime Minister joined other Tory MPs and Nigel Farage in their critical response to the arrival of asylum seekers by boat, which he described as "stupid and dangerous".
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Govt faces legal action over appointment of racism skeptic to head racism inquiry
Head of the Race and Ethnic Disparity Commission, Tony Sewell, described the Black Lives Matter Protests as "navel gazing".
Read the full report 
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