Marsha de Cordova – 2020 Comments on Commission on BAME Issues

Below is the text of the comments made by Marsha de Cordova, the Shadow Women and Equalities Secretary, on 15 June 2020.

We are in the midst of a global health pandemic that has sharply exposed deep structural inequalities which have long since needed urgently addressing.

That the Prime Minister now says he wants to ‘change the narrative… So we stop the sense of victimisation and discrimination’ is condescending and designed to let himself and his Government off the hook.

Boris Johnson’s Government must acknowledge and act on the racial injustices and should now move to deliver a race equality strategy that sets out plans to reduce the structural inequalities and institutional racism faced by ethnic minorities in Britain.