‘We’re not there yet’: Bishop dismisses race report’s claim that UK is model for white-majority countries

The UK is not yet a model for other white-majority countries in terms of racial equality, despite claims made by a recent government-backed review, the Church of England’s first black female bishop has warned.

The Rt Rev Rose Hudson-Wilkin said that Britain would only become an example to other nations when black people are consistently customers in establishments, rather than workers in cleaning and serving.

The Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities claimed in its review published last week that the “success of much of the ethnic minority population” in education and the economy “should be regarded as a model for other white-majority countries”.

Ms Hudson-Wilkin, the Bishop of Dover, said that she was concerned about the claim, which she believed risked causing complacency within government.

“I think what concerned me most in that report was this blanket thing that Britain can now be an example to other majority-white people,” she told ITV’s Good Morning Britain.

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“No, it is not an example. Is it getting some things right? Absolutely yes.

“But we will become an example when I walk into large establishments, or any establishments, for that matter, and I don’t see black people only sweeping the floors, doing the cleaning and the catering.”

She added: “I will know when I see black people sitting around every table up and down this land.

“When I see black people in leadership in all walks of life, then we will be able to say - and I will happily say - that Britain can become a model country. We’re not there yet.”

Ms Hudson-Wilkin also said there was a danger of assuming that action was not needed on racial equality because some people from ethnic minority groups had achieved success in the UK.

The government-backed report, commissioned following the Black Lives Matter protests last year, said Britain was no longer a country where the “system is deliberately rigged against ethnic minorities”, and its chairman said it had found no evidence of “institutional racism”.

It argued that geography, family influence, socio-economic background, culture and religion all impacted life chances more than racism.

However, race equality campaigners have criticised the report, with one of the leading equality think-tanks saying it felt “deeply, massively let down” by its conclusions.

“Institutionally, we are still racist, and for a government-appointed commission to look into [institutional] racism, to deny its existence is deeply, deeply worrying,” Dr Halima Begum, the chief executive of the Runnymede Trust, said.

Labour’s David Lammy, one of the UK’s most prominent black MPs, described the report as an “insult to anybody and everybody across this country who experiences institutional racism”.

“This report could have been a turning point and a moment to come together. Instead, it has chosen to divide us once more and keep us debating the existence of racism rather than doing anything about it,” he said.