No 10 Race Adviser Samuel Kasumu Resigns

Boris Johnson’s adviser on race has resigned, it has emerged, amid a growing row over a report on racial disparities which concluded that the UK does not have a systemic problem with racism.

Downing Street said Kasumu’s departure was not linked to the report by the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities, which faced criticism over its findings, although its timing is uncomfortable for the government.

However, one senior figure who has worked with Kasumu insisted that the disclosure of the resignation of Johnson’s most senior black adviser on Thursday was no coincidence.

Lord Woolley, who appointed Kasumu to No 10’s race disparity unit during Theresa May’s time as prime minister, said Kasumu’s resignation was connected to the “grubby, divisive” findings within the race commission’s report.

“The only black special adviser in No 10 has felt that his only recourse to this grubby, divisive Sewell report is to resign. I appointed Samuel to the race disparity advisory group when we first launched. He is a decent man whose energy has been hellbent on serving his country and tackling systemic racism,” he said.

“This is going to be a real moment for the PM and his aides at No 10 Downing Street. Black people around the country are incandescent with rage that their lived experience of persistent race inequality is being denied and belittled.”

Full story at The Guardian