Attacks on the ethnic diversity of Tory cabinets have not been limited to the right; there is lack of nuance on all sides of the race debate
As a Briton of Indian heritage, I had mixed feelings when I saw the images of the new prime minister, Rishi Sunak, celebrating Diwali at a Downing Street reception. Who could fail to be moved by the fact the UK has its first prime minister of colour? But there is also much I abhor about Sunak’s politics.
Because there’s more to me than my ethnicity, I don’t have any trouble holding both these thoughts in my head at once. Sixty years ago, racial discrimination was perfectly legal: of course it matters that children can today see that you don’t have to be white to lead this country. But like his Tory predecessors at the Treasury, Sunak is a fiscal hawk, making unnecessarily harsh spending decisions that have resulted in significant hardship. Like many Conservatives, he does not appear to place much stock in the idea of structural discrimination, through which too many young people are held back from achieving their full potential because of their race or class background.
