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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Letters

In British politics, race is still the elephant in the room

(clockwise from top left) Liz Truss, Tom Tugendhat, Kemi Badenoch, Penny Mordaunt, Rishi Sunak and  Suella Braverman
Clockwise from top left: Liz Truss, Tom Tugendhat, Kemi Badenoch, Penny Mordaunt, Rishi Sunak and Suella Braverman. Photograph: UK Parliament/PA

In his interesting piece, Jonathan Freedland argues that “while class barriers remain as high as ever, the fact that some of the barriers of race and sex are lowering in the party of the establishment is significant” (The next PM may well be from an ethnic minority. That’s a big deal – and a challenge for Labour, 15 July).

That may be so, but significant in what respect? Biological diversity, whether on the axis of race or sex, is meaningless unless it makes a difference to the historically oppressed target groups to which those “diverse” individuals belong. In my Gleaner column from which Freedland quoted, I gave evidence of Sajid Javid’s and Priti Patel’s operation of racist immigration law and practice, and the suffering inflicted upon law-abiding black citizens. “Race traitor” is a cheap and meaningless jibe.

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