WHAT fitting reward for a historian whose vile rants about black people, Muslims, even the Hindu former prime minister Rishi Sunak have sparked numerous accusations of racism?
Well, if you’re Tory leadership hopeful Robert Jenrick, the right-wing historian David Starkey should be given a “dukedom”.
That’s right, in his quest to court the part of the Tory vote that obsessively tweet about race science and “Western values”, Jenrick when asked if he would give Starkey a peerage, replied: “I was thinking more of a dukedom.”
Before we dive into Starkey’s priors, it’s important to note that unless Jenrick thinks he is applying for the job of King – rather than leader of the opposition – he will have nothing to do with the creation of new dukedoms.
One thing that unites Ed Miliband, former Tory chancellor Sajid Javid (above) and National columnist Owen Jones – not normally a trio who’d agree on much – is that they’ve all accused Starkey of making racist comments.
Perhaps his crowning glory was when Starkey said that people shouldn’t “go on about slavery” and added that “slavery was not genocide, otherwise there wouldn't be so many damn blacks in Africa or in Britain”.
For this intervention, made in 2020, Starkey was booted off the board of charities, magazines. He lost roles at both Cambridge University and Canterbury Christ Church University, while Lancaster University revoked his honorary degree.
Publishers HarperCollins axed a book deal with him while Hodder and Soughton said they wouldn’t work with him again.
But for us here at The National, Starkey will always be remembered for his role in the downfall of Neil Oliver.
Amid the row over his “so many damn blacks” comments, it was found that Oliver (above) had previously declared his “love” for the historian. Those comments were by no means the first time Starkey had made controversial interventions on race.
He was at the time the president of the National Trust for Scotland. They defended him saying that in making that declaration of Starkey “love”, Oliver was “not representing the trust”.
Of course, shortly afterwards, he announced he was quitting the job.
So if we do end up with an ennobled Starkey, perhaps Oliver could be his footman.
