Boris Johnson adviser quits amid backlash over racial disparities report

&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpcnt">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpa">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<span class&equals;"wpa-about">Advertisements<&sol;span>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"u top&lowbar;amp">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<amp-ad width&equals;"300" height&equals;"265"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; type&equals;"pubmine"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-siteid&equals;"111265417"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-section&equals;"1">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;amp-ad>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div><p>Boris Johnson’s most senior black adviser has resigned as ministers face a backlash after a UK Government-backed review said Britain is no longer a country where the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;system is deliberately rigged against ethnic minorities”&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Samuel Kasumu has quit his role as a special adviser to the Prime Minister on civil society but will stay in post until May to continue work on improving vaccine uptake in minority groups&comma; Politico reported&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The timing of Mr Kasumu’s departure comes after the landmark report by the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities &lpar;Cred&rpar; faced heavy criticism over its findings&comma; with claims that it is culturally deaf&comma; out of step with public opinion&comma; and &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;steeped in denial”&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Its chairman said it had found no evidence of &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;institutional racism”&comma; and the report criticised the way the term has been applied&comma; saying it should not be used as a &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;catch-all” phrase for any microaggression&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Downing Street sources insisted his departure was &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;absolutely nothing to do with the report”&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Government minister Gillian Keegan appeared unaware of Mr Kasumu’s departure&comma; telling Times Radio&colon; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;I don’t even know who he is&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Politico said Mr Kasumu notified the Prime Minister’s chief of staff&comma; Dan Rosenfield&comma; of his decision to quit his job – which paid up to £75&comma;000 – last week&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He has reportedly been unhappy in Government for some time&comma; with a resignation letter drafted – but then retracted – in February&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In the letter&comma; which was obtained by the BBC&comma; Mr Kasumu accused the Conservative Party of pursuing &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;a politics steeped in division” and suggested Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch may have broken the ministerial code in her public spat with a journalist&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Shadow women and equalities secretary Marsha de Cordova said&colon; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;To have your most senior adviser on ethnic minorities quit as you publish a so-called landmark report on race in the UK is telling of how far removed the Tories are from the everyday lived experiences of black&comma; Asian and ethnic minority people&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Their divisive report appears to glorify slavery and suggests that institutional racism does not exist&comma; despite the evidence to the contrary&period; It is no wonder they are losing the expertise from their team&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The commission said geography&comma; family influence&comma; socio-economic background&comma; culture and religion all affect life chances more than racism&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Its findings have been described as insulting and divisive&comma; and the chairman of the review has been accused of putting a &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;positive spin on slavery and empire” when explaining its recommendation on teaching history in schools&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The report proposes a Making Of Modern Britain teaching resource to &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;tell the multiple&comma; nuanced stories of the contributions made by different groups that have made this country the one it is today”&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In commission chairman Tony Sewell’s foreword to the report&comma; he said the recommendation is the body’s response to &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;negative calls for &OpenCurlyQuote;decolonising’ the curriculum”&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He wrote that the resource should look at the influence of the UK during its Empire period and how &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Britishness influenced the Commonwealth” and how local communities influenced &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;modern Britain”&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He added&colon; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;There is a new story about the Caribbean experience which speaks to the slave period not only being about profit and suffering but how culturally African people transformed themselves into a remodelled African&sol;Britain&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Highlighting the passage on Twitter&comma; Ms de Cordova said it was &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;one of the worst bits” of the report which was &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;putting a positive spin on slavery and empire”&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Halima Begum&comma; chief executive of race equality think tank the Runnymede Trust&comma; said&colon; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Comments about the slave trade being a Caribbean experience&comma; as though it’s some kind of holiday… this is how deafening it is&comma; cultural deafness&comma; it’s completely out of kilter with where British society is&comma; I believe&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div style&equals;"padding-bottom&colon;15px&semi;" class&equals;"wordads-tag" data-slot-type&equals;"belowpost">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div id&equals;"atatags-dynamic-belowpost-68cd2f33c2db5">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<script type&equals;"text&sol;javascript">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;getAdSnippetCallback &equals; 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