The former chancellor of ex-chequer has urged that the government must not wait for the results of any further race reports to tackle discrimination in the UK.
Sajid Javid has appealed to the prime minister and businesses to make immediate changes to improve diversity after Boris Johnson announced establishment of an independent Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities in June – the sixth review into discrimination since 2014.
He suggested that prime minister’s announcement of the review was significant as was home secretary Priti Patel’s recent response to the Windrush Lessons Learned review by Wendy Williams, where she set out five reforms including training and recruitment at the department. Equalities minister Kemi Badenoch MP will oversee the review, which is being led by educational consultant and charity founder Tony Sewell.
Downing Street was heavily criticised for the appointment of Munira Mirza who has previously been sceptical of discussions around institutional racism.
He said, “We shouldn’t be waiting for the commission to do its job and thinking ‘there’s nothing to do now, let’s wait for the commission, then we can follow what it says’.
“Because we cannot afford to wait,” Javid said in a discussion on racial equality by thinktank British Future.
Insisting that he still face criticism, Javid said,
“If you look at my social media feed after this seminar you can see lots of people making racist comments about me. You get used to it, but we shouldn’t have to.”
“The more people you have that have come from different backgrounds … that will inevitably help the change that organisation and the culture.”
He said Theresa May’s Race Disparity Audit had also provided invaluable information on diversity and levels of pay across different employment sectors and was part of the data available to government.
