Following his appointment with the King yesterday, Rishi Sunak has become one of the youngest Prime Ministers in modern times, the first British Asian and the first Hindu to hold the office. The statement from Solat Chaudhry below, reflects on what this historic appointment means for racial equality.
1. There is a danger that some will claim that because we have a new PM who is a person of colour that racism doesn’t exist.
Now we know that this is nonsense, proven by a radio show caller claiming to be a member of the Conservative Party arguing that the PM of the UK shouldn’t be an ethnic minority person, and that we wouldn’t have that happening in Pakistan. We need to remind said caller of 200 years of British rule during the days of Empire.
Mr Sunak isn’t going to route out systemic inequality over night. There are still a great deal of people struggling with less favourable treatment in the workplace. We know, because we deal with this all day and every day through Investors in Diversity.
2. As per the last point, Sunak’s appointment will be bring out the closet racists and Xenophobes who will no doubt start their speeches with “I’m not racist but…” or “I don’t see colour but…“ and then rant away for the next 10 minutes.
3. Mr Sunak, will need to do a bloody good job at home and in foreign policy dealings otherwise we might see the appearance of the “I told you so” brigade.
I make no political points here when I say; Mr Sunak, I wish you well, because right now our country needs to sort the economy out, urgently.