Tory MPs demand inquiry into equality thinktank over race report criticism

The Charity Commission is considering whether to investigate a leading race equality thinktank after claims from Conservative MPs that it is pursuing a political agenda.

More than a dozen Tories have written to the commission demanding an investigation into the Runnymede Trust over its criticism of the Sewell report into racial disparities in the UK.

Organised by the former minister Sir John Hayes and signed by Tory MPs including Sir Edward Leigh, Sally-Ann Hart and Imran Ahmad Khan, the letter claimed the trust was unduly interested in criticising the government rather than in the conclusions of the race commission’s report.

The development came after the trust recently delivered an open letter and petition to Downing Street urging Boris Johnson to reject the findings from the report and instead implement recommendations from previous reviews.

The equalities minister Kemi Badenoch on Tuesday defended the report and condemned the “abhorrent and appalling abuse” meted out to its authors, which has included death threats.

“This government welcomes legitimate disagreements and debate, but firmly rejects bad faith attempts to undermine the credibility of this report. Doing so risks undermining the vital work we are trying to do to understand and address the causes of inequality in the UK, and any other positive work that results from it,” Badenoch said.

She added: “This report makes clear that the UK is not a post-racial society, and that racism is still a real force which has the power to deny opportunity and painfully disrupt lives.”

Badenoch criticised “the deeply personal and racialised attacks” against the commissioners and wanted to “set the record straight”.

Speaking during a debate in the House of Commons, Badenoch announced that the government would be creating a new inter-ministerial group to review the recommendations made by the commission.

A spokesperson for Black Lives Matter UK said: “Today, Kemi Badenoch’s speech in the Commons signals that the government is embarking on a full-scale campaign to silence criticism, and discredit any dissenting voices.”

The spokesperson added: “It is also notable that Badenoch supported the report’s convoluted attempts to disentangle race from class – to ultimately argue that racism is less prevalent than it truly is. BLM UK believes that race and class cannot be separated like this – the fact that nearly half of Black and minority ethnic households live in poverty in the UK is not a statistical coincidence; it is clear evidence that structural racism is still rife in this country.”

BLM UK also said that Badenoch’s statement “only confirms our view that the report was not intended to interrogate structural racism, but instead serves as propaganda.”

The complaint against the Runnymede Trust was discussed during the debate. The equality minister said: “I read in today’s paper that the Runnymede Trust is now the subject of complaint to the Charity Commission and one of the complaints refers to the behaviour of the trust CEO and staff towards ethnic minorities who have a different approach to racial equality.

“And some of this behaviour includes calling a black Conservative a house negro and horrific views on mixed-race relationships expressed by one of their staff members, which compared white people having relationships with black people to slave masters sleeping with their slaves. I do not believe these actions are appropriate for a charity committed to racial equality.”

A Runnymede Trust spokesperson hit back at the claims from the Conservative MPs describing it as an “adversarial trend” for politicians to file complaints against charities whose work they contest.

A spokesperson for the charity said: “The trust regrets the recent trend for politicians to forsake dialogue and simply file complaints against charities whose efforts to address and challenge racism they contest.

“Beloved British institutions including the National Trust and Barnardo’s have also fallen foul of this worrying trend. Indeed, we are extremely concerned that the efforts made by these charities to address racism are the single common factor behind the grievances to which they have been subjected by what would appear to be a core group of MPs.”

A Charity Commission spokesperson confirmed that they were looking into the issue.

“We take all concerns raised with us seriously, and assess them carefully to determine whether they fall within our remit as regulator,” they added.