What is Boris Johnson’s Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities and how will it work?
BORIS Johson announced the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities after a series of anti-racism protests on British streets.
The demonstrations had been triggered by the death in the United States of George Floyd while in police custody but the commission aims to look at equality issues in the UK.
What is the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities?
Boris Johnson has announced he will set up a new commission to look at all “aspects of inequality”.
The commission will look at criminal justice and education.
But it will also look at “wider inequalities”, including issues facing “working class white boys in schools”.
The prime minister’s spokesman said its aim would be to set out a “new positive agenda for change”.
Why was the commission set up?
The announcement that the commission was to be set up follows two weeks of protests across the country by the Black Lives Matter movement following the killing in the US of George Floyd, who died as a white police officer knelt on his neck.
The Prime Minister said the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities would learn “very fast” what changes needed to be made.
Mr Johnson, who also faced criticism for saying he wanted to “stop the sense of victimisation and discrimination”, acknowledged that racism “unquestionably” existed in the UK.
He told reporters in Downing Street: “The whole point of having a review is to look at the areas where people feel there’s more that needs to be done.”
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Who is overseeing the commission?
The head of the No.10 policy unit, Munira Mirza, has been appointed head of the commission to investigate racial and ethnic disparities in British society.
Ms Mirza was born in Oldham, Greater Manchester, to parents of Pakistani origin and had two older brothers and an older sister.
In a Sun article that month, she also said: “By appeasing the anti-racism lobby and affirming its culture of grievance, public institutions and business leaders are not making Britain a fairer place but harming the very people they aspire to help.”