MOST black people in Britain believe Boris Johnson’s government is racist, according to a new poll.
The survey of 1535 adults by Savanta ComRes for CNN found that 58% of black people and 39% of white people thought the Conservative Party were institutionally racist.
Incredibly the Tories score worse than the Brexit Party, with 55% of black people believing Nigel Farage’s anti-immigration group is institutionally racist.
And in grim news for Nicola Sturgeon, Keir Starmer and Ed Davey, it wasn’t just the Tories who were forced to fend of the allegations of prejudice. The poll revealed that 34% of black people thought the SNP was institutionally racist, while 31% thought the same was true of Labour and the LibDems.
The poll was released to coincide with the third annual Windrush Day, set up to commemorate the men and women who sailed from the Caribbean to help rebuild Britain after the Second World War.
There are an estimated 500,000 people now living in the UK who arrived between 1948 and 1971.
They were granted indefinite leave to remain in 1971 but thousands were children travelling on their parents’ passports, without their own documents. The government’s hostile environment saw some of those without documents asked for evidence to continue working, access services or even to remain in the UK.
The Home Office even wrongly deported people who had lived and worked in the UK for decades.
It later transpired that the Home Office had not kept a record of the Windrush arrivals and landing cards had been destroyed in 2010.
In CNN’s poll, 55% of black people said they did not have faith in the UK Government to prevent a similar scandal from occurring again, while 38% said they did.
Starkly, the figures were reversed for white people with 55% saying they trusted the government to avoid another scandal, while 39% did not.
Yesterday, the author of a report into the Windrush scandal warned there was a “grave risk” of a repeat of the affair unless the Home Office learned the lessons.
Among 30 recommendations, the report advised that Home Office staff undertake a comprehensive programme covering the history of the UK, its relationship with the rest of the world and its colonial history.
It also called for the appointment of a Migrants’ Commissioner.
Meanwhile, in a video message, the Prince of Wales spoke of the “debt of gratitude” the nation owes the Windrush generation: “Today offers an opportunity to express the debt of gratitude we owe to that first Windrush generation for accepting the invitation to come to Britain and, above all, to recognise the immeasurable difference that they, their children and their grandchildren have made to so many aspects of our public life.”
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