Boris Johnson’s Government risks another Jo Cox, says ex-advisor to the PM

Boris Johnson‘s former race adviser today accused the Government of stoking a ‘culture war’ he claims will lead to murder on Britain’s streets.

Samuel Kasumu, in his first interview since quitting as the Prime Minister’s most senior black aide, said some Conservatives believe the path to victory includes exploiting division.

Mr Kasumu says that he would ‘place a bet’ that this will lead to a new hate-fuelled murder such as the racist killing of Stephen Lawrence, the assassination of Labour MP Jo Cox by a fascist or a new tragedy such as the Windrush scandal. 

‘There are some people in the Government who feel like the right way to win is to pick a fight on the culture war and to exploit division,’ he told the Guardian in an interview.

He added: ‘I worry about that. It seems like people have very short memories, and they’ve already forgotten Jo Cox’, who died five years ago today.

Mr Kasumu said the man who killed the Labour MP during the Brexit referendum campaign had been whipped into a ‘frenzy’.

He added: ‘If I was going to go to William Hill today and place a bet on what the most likely option is, I’d probably say a Jo Cox, a Stephen Lawrence, a Windrush scandal is where we’re headed if you don’t find a way to overcome this cultural moment. I feel like the Government must be the ones to try to help drive that change.’

Mr Kasumu quit as a special adviser to the Prime Minister on civil society in April after a Government-backed review said Britain is no longer a country where the ‘system is deliberately rigged against ethnic minorities’.

In his resignation letter, he accused the Conservative Party of pursuing ‘a politics steeped in division’ and suggested Equalities minister Kemi Badenoch may have broken the ministerial code in her Twitter attack on a journalist.

He told The Guardian: ‘I don’t have any personal issues with [Badenoch]. But when that happened, a lot of things went through my mind. I thought to myself, if that young journalist was my sister, or relative of mine, how would I feel about a minister responding to her in such a way?’. 

The Government has said it is focused on an equality agenda.

A No 10 spokesman said: ‘The entirety of the UK Government is focused on defeating this pandemic and building back fairer for everyone. That is our priority.

‘The minister for women and equalities clearly set out in her Fight for Fairness speech the Government’s plans for an evidence-based equality agenda in the UK.

‘This includes racial equality, which is why the Prime Minister set up the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities and, following their detailed report, the Government will shortly respond to their recommendations.’

Mr Kasumu tendered his resignation in February, penning a letter warning that ministers were pursuing a ‘politics steeped in division’ and voicing ‘concern’ about how equalities minister Kemi Badenoch handled a spat with a journalist. At that stage he was talked out of going, even though the letter was leaked.

The news surfaced after the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities published a controversial study on inequality in Britain. 

The 33-year-old informed No10 colleagues in late March that he was leaving, according to Politico. 

Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi is believed to have tried unsuccessfully to persuade Mr Kasumu to change his mind again. 

During a visit to Middlesbrough, Mr Johnson told reporters: ‘I worked very closely with Samuel in the last year or so and he’s done some great stuff.

‘I thank him very much, particularly on helping to encourage vaccine take-up amongst more hesitant groups and communities. And, actually, we’re seeing some real success there.

‘It is true that different groups have been coming forward at different paces, everybody is increasing their take-ups, so I thank him very much for that.’

The race report, which was months in the making and produced by a group of 12 experts – only one of whom was white – concluded that there was no evidence of institutional racism in this country.

Overseen by chair Dr Tony Sewell, its findings were branded a ‘whitewash’ by the Left, but welcomed by other campaigners. 

The report, commissioned by the Prime Minister after last year’s Black Lives Matter protests, said Britain was no longer a country where the ‘system is deliberately rigged against ethnic minorities’.

The report said factors such as geography, family influence, socio-economic background, culture and religion all impacted life chances more than racism, and concluded the UK was a ‘beacon’ to the world as a successful multi-ethnic nation which displayed much more tolerance than its neighbours.

But unions said the report denied the experiences of black and minority ethnic workers. 

Labour justice spokesman David Lammy said black Britons were being ‘gaslighted’ and called the report an insult to anyone in Britain who had experienced structural racism.

The report’s authors were also accused of trying to put a ‘positive spin on slavery’ after they called on schools to use history lessons to ‘tell the multiple, nuanced stories of the contributions made by different groups that have made this country the one it is today’.

In his foreword, Dr Sewell said there was a new story to be told about the ‘slave period’ and about how ‘culturally African people transformed themselves into a remodelled African/Britain’.

But Halima Begum, chief executive of the Runnymede Trust, a race equality think-tank, said: ‘I’m absolutely flabbergasted to see the slave trade apparently redefined as ‘the Caribbean Experience’; as though it’s something Thomas Cook should be selling – a one-way shackled cruise to purgatory. 

‘The cultural deafness of this report is only going to become clearer in the coming days and weeks.’

But Dr Sewell said it was ‘absurd to suggest that the commission is trying to downplay the evil of the slave trade’. 

Mr Johnson insisted there are ‘serious issues that our society faces to do with racism’ and that work needed to be done to ‘fix it’.

And he suggested the government will not agree with ‘everything’ in the report’s conclusions. 

‘Look, this is a very interesting piece of work,’ he said.

‘I don’t say the Government is going to agree with absolutely everything in it, but it has some original and stimulating work in it that I think people need to read and to consider.

‘There are very serious issues that our society faces to do with racism that we need to address.

‘We’ve got to do more to fix it, we need to understand the severity of the problem, and we’re going to be looking at all the ideas that they have put forward, and we’ll be making our response.’

Duwayne Brooks, a friend of Stephen Lawrence, said he agreed that not all disparities in the UK were caused by racism.

The activist told Times Radio: ‘What the report is doing is comparing life for the ethnic minorities in Britain, in comparison to the European countries, where life would be much, much worse than how it is today.’

He added: ‘It’s not as simple to just say that the black people of Britain cannot get jobs because they’re black. 

‘And that’s what people want the report to say.’

Baroness Kishwer Falkner, chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, added: ‘This report rightly identifies the varied causes of disparities and by making recommendations to address them gives the Government the opportunity to design policy targeting the sources of inequality.’ 

Mr Kasumu wrote a resignation letter from his job, paid up to £75,000 a year, in February.

Although he later retracted it, the BBC obtained a copy. 

In it, Mr Kasumu accused the Conservative Party of pursuing ‘a politics steeped in division’ and suggested Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch may have broken the ministerial code in her public spat with a journalist.

He wrote: ‘I fear for what may become of the party in the future by choosing to pursue a politics steeped in division.’

The former Conservative activist and councillor who grew up in Barnet, north London, said ‘the damage that is often caused by our actions is not much considered’, adding: ‘As someone that has spent his whole adult life serving others, that tension has been at times unbearable.’

He reportedly described the actions of Ms Badenoch as ‘concerning’.

Ms Badenoch accused HuffPost reporter Nadine White of ‘creepy and bizarre’ behaviour after the journalist contacted her requesting a comment for a story.

The minister posted screenshots of Ms White’s emails online sparking a backlash against the reporter.