Divide and Rule
By Claudia Webbe MP
The Andrew Sabisky affair is likely to be only the first of many Tory racism scandals as the new government sets about dividing our communities in the interests of the rich, argues Claudia Webbe.
”Let’s get out and get on with it. Let’s unite this country… Let’s get Brexit done. But first, my friends, let’s get breakfast done.”
These words, from Boris Johnson’s victory speech the morning after the devastating general election, demonstrate the Prime Minister’s disingenuous approach to healing the country. A glib call for unity, followed immediately by a cringe-worthy pun.
This was further proof, if any were needed, that Johnson’s premiership would never be serious about bringing people together or soothing legitimate concerns about the Prime Minister’s own history of racist and offensive comments.
It took barely two months for Number 10 to reveal its tolerance for racism and divisiveness. Andrew Sabisky, a 27-year-old protégé of controversial senior Johnson advisor Dominic Cummings, was hired by Downing Street earlier this year after Cummings advertised a job for “misfits and weirdos.” This week, a long history of Sabisky’s abhorrently racist, sexist and classist views were unearthed.
Chief amongst these were his endorsement of eugenics, the disgusting, unproven pseudo-science which links human traits to ethnicity, which has historically been used to justify violent, racist imperialism and the atrocities of Nazi Germany. Sabisky falsely suggested that black people on average have lower IQs than white people and wrote that “there are excellent reasons to think the very real racial differences in intelligence are significantly – even mostly – genetic in origin.”
He also endorsed enforced contraception “to get around the problems of unplanned pregnancies creating a permanent underclass,” and wrote that people on benefits “tend to be less conscientious and agreeable” and should therefore have less children than working people with more “pro-social personalities.” He also boasted that “I am always straight up in saying that women’s sport is more comparable to the Paralympics than it is to men’s.”
Shockingly, this is not an exhaustive list of Sabisky’s appalling views. Boris Johnson has serious questions to answer about how a person with such vile opinions was ever able to work in Number 10.
As a black, working-class woman representing the incredibly diverse constituency of Leicester East, I am gravely concerned that the Tories are following Donald Trump’s divisive, racist agenda as a template for government.
49 percent of our city’s population are from a Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) background, the largest proportion in England and Wales, and over a third of our residents were born outside the UK. Most Leicester schoolchildren have a BAME background and half of all primary school children in the city speak another language at home, compared to just sixteen percent nationally. We are home to 240 faith groups across fourteen different faiths, and our residents hail from over 50 countries across the globe.
I am incredibly proud to have been born and bred in such a wonderfully diverse city. That’s why I am appalled by the government’s willingness to divide our communities based on the colour of our skin and other immutable characteristics. I know only too well the hurt that my constituents will feel after the government tried to legitimise the dehumanisation and marginalisation of BAME communities.
Johnson has pointedly refused to condemn Sabisky’s views, and his press officer attempted to defend the indefensible by standing by the disgraced advisor. A Downing Street spokesperson refused to answer more than thirty questions on whether Boris Johnson agreed with Sabisky’s views, by simply repeating that: “the Prime Minister’s views are well publicised and well documented.”
If this was an attempt to exonerate the PM from any accusation of impropriety, it won’t work. Boris Johnson’s own racist, misogynist, homophobic, Islamophobic, antisemitic and classist views are, indeed, ‘publicised and well documented.’
This is a Prime Minister who wrote in 2005 that it was only “natural” for the public to fear Islam. Who in 2018 compared Muslim women who wear burqas to “letter boxes” and bank robbers. Who has referred to black people as “piccaninnies” with “watermelon smiles.” Who has called gay men “tank-topped bumboys.” Who called working-class men “drunk, criminal, aimless, feckless and hopeless.”
It is a Prime Minister who said children of working mothers are “ill-raised, ignorant, aggressive and illegitimate,” and advised male colleagues to “pat [a female colleague] on the bottom and send her on her way.” Who wrote a book when he was a shadow Conservative minister invoking some of the oldest and most pernicious antisemitic stereotypes and whilst editor of the Spectator promoted anti-Jewish hatred.
But the Prime Minister is not attempting to diffuse these scandals. He has never apologised for his disgraceful comments. On Tuesday morning, Cummings dismissed those concerned about Sabisky as “political pundits who don’t know what they are talking about.” What Johnson and Cummings are attempting to do, despite the Prime Minister’s empty words the day after the election, is divide our communities so that they can continue to govern in the interest of the super-rich and big corporations.
The government’s acceleration of structural and institutionalised racism is of grave concern for my constituents in Leicester and for all of us who oppose injustice and inequality. Last week, Boris Johnson’s said that he “bitterly regretted” the court decision that stopped twenty-five more people from being deported to Jamaica because they had not had access to legal advice – a case with chilling similarity to the Windrush scandal.
A few days later he appointed a new Attorney General, Suella Braverman MP, who wants to ‘take back control’ from British courts. What we are seeing is a hard-right Tory administration trying to centralise power so they can trample over basic human rights.
At a time when hate crime has more than doubled since 2013, it has never been more important for those of us on the left to bring our communities together. As socialists, we must oppose any attempt to divide people based on the colour of their skin, where they come from, who they love or which God they pray to.
With a government gleefully embracing racist culture wars and the politics of division, it is up to all of us, in Leicester East and across the country, to protect our people against those who wish to pit communities against each other.
Claudia Webbe MP is the member of Parliament for Leicester East. You can follow her at www.facebook.com/claudiaforLE and twitter.com/ClaudiaWebbe
