Race report: Minister defends review for 'challenging orthodoxy'

The equalities minister has defended a government-commissioned report on race in the UK, after a backlash against its findings.

Kemi Badenoch said there had been "wilful misrepresentation" of the review, which has faced criticism from some MPs and campaigners.

She said its authors had challenged "orthodoxy" but their findings were based on evidence.

Labour called the report "incoherent" and "ideologically motivated".

The Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities, set up after last summer's Black Lives Matter protests, published its report last month.

It found racism remains a "real force in the UK" but family structure and social class had a bigger impact than race on how people's lives turned out.

It has faced criticism from charities and campaigners, who have accused it of downplaying the extent of racism in British society and institutions.

• UN experts say UK race report could 'fuel racism'

• Campaigners criticise government race report

• Key points: What does the race report say?

Outlining the report's findings to MPs, Ms Badenoch said claims the report had sought to deny the existence of institutional racism were not true.

Rather, she said, the commissioners had failed to find "conclusive evidence" of institutional racism in "specific areas it examined".

She added the report's findings had challenged "a number of strongly held beliefs about the extent and influence of racism in Britain today".

"The commissioners have followed the evidence and drawn conclusions which challenge orthodoxy and they were prepared for robust and constructive debate," she told MPs.

'Divisive narratives'

"However, they were not prepared for the wilful misrepresentation of the report which occurred following its publication," she added.

Ms Badenoch also hit out a group of human rights experts who had criticised the report on Monday.

The UN working group on people of African descent said the report's conclusions were an "attempt to normalise white supremacy".

But Ms Badenoch said their criticism "grossly misrepresents" the report's findings, and had resulted from the "divisive narratives being perpetrated by certain media outlets and political groups".

For Labour, shadow equalities minister Marsha de Cordova said the report had "no credibility" and its conclusions were "ideologically motivated and divisive".

She added that the findings "downplay the role of institutional and structural racism, and blame ethnic minorities for their own disadvantage".

"They have published a shoddy, point-scoring polemic which ignores evidence and does not represent the country that I know and love.

"If left unchallenged, this report will undo decades of progress made towards race equality in the UK."