David Cameron is right to challenge Oxford’s all white culture

It was a perfect Oxford Day. The light came sparkling through the Sheldonian windows as Sir Christopher Wren’s first masterpiece was packed full of graduands – the very Oxford gerund for those who were going to become graduates.

When I graduated there were no ceremonies other than drinking too much champagne at the end of finals. Now, in one of those instant traditions Britain loves to create, Oxford apes the American custom of graduation ceremonies complete with throwing mortar boards in the air.

As we milled around the Sheldonian after the ceremony was over there was one notable absence: there were no black graduates.

I sent up the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford, Professor Andrew Hamilton, to congratulate him on the joyous day and to ask why there were no Afro-Caribbean graduates?

‘There are one or two,’ he said and indeed a close search revealed one black graduate in cap and gown. ‘We take diversity very seriously,’ he added

Not that seriously. A day later I got the annual magazine from my Oxford college, one of the oldest and richest. There was one black face in the photo of the new undergraduates and just one more – the coach of the college’s female football team.

The Oxford class of 2011, who graduated in 2014, had just 32 black students - 0.15 per cent of the total Oxford student population. In 2013, the African-American leader, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, visiting Cambridge said: “The absence of blacks diminishes the greatness of these universities. One Oxford college has not admitted a single black student in five years." He added that “when 21 colleges at Oxbridge took no black students last year, the students are being cheated of a multi-cultural and multi-racial experience in a world that is multi-cultural and multi-racial."

Now the Prime Minister has stormed into the question denouncing the “ingrained, institutional and insidious” attitudes in our top universities towards British students who are not white.

It is not clear what sparked this sudden outburst. Earlier last week Mr Cameron was castigated for calling refugees seeking to enter Britain and stranded in Calais “a bunch of immigrants.”

Now he out-lefts Jeremy Corbyn with his denunciation of Oxbridge. He goes further asking why there are no black generals and only 4 per of FTSE CEOs are from an ethnic background – more likely to be Asian than Afro-Caribbean.

His utter shock, at what he has discovered came at the same time as it is revealed that he is considering sending his son to an exclusive private school which starts the preparation of putting boys into Eton and Oxford.

Mr Cameron’s daughter goes to a Westminster comprehensive which has a high percentage of black girls amongst its pupils. His son, if he goes to private school, will mix mainly with white boys from wealthy families.

He has won his headline and now he has to follow up. David Cameron emerged as the champion of gay marriage to the dismay of Section 28 Tory diehards. If now he can really change the face of the British establishment so that it reflects the entire nation the country will be better and fairer. David Cameron is nothing if not full of surprises in his political leadership.

Denis MacShane is a former Minister for Europe. He has an MA from Oxford and a Ph D from London universities