TV historian could be ditched by Cambridge after rant

HISTORIAN David Starkey faces being stripped of his Cambridge fellowship after claiming slavery can not have been genocide otherwise ‘there wouldn’t be so many damn blacks in Africa or Britain’.

The 75-year-old hit out at Black Lives Matter in an uncomfortable video interview with Conservative activist Darren Grimes, arguing the only reason the protesters are in Britain is ‘because of slavery’.

Dr Starkey, known for his television documentaries, said: ‘Slavery was not genocide, otherwise there wouldn’t be so many damn blacks in Africa or in Britain, would there?’ His comments were condemned as racist, with Cambridge’s Fitzwilliam College, of which he has been an honorary fellow since 2006, pledging to review his position.

Ex-home secretary Sajid Javid was among the high-profile figures who slammed Mr Starkey’s remarks. He said: ‘We are the most successful multi-racial democracy in the world. But David Starkey’s racist comments are a reminder of the appalling views that still exist.’

During the interview on 26year-old Mr Grimes’s YouTube channel, called Reasoned, Dr Starkey said: ‘The honest teaching of the British Empire is to say, quite simply, it was the first stage of world globalisation.

‘We cannot decolonise the curriculum because you, Black Lives Matter, are wholly and entirely a product of white colonisation.’

In antagonistic remarks, he added: ‘You are not culturally black Africans. You would die in seconds if you were dumped back in black Africa.’

A spokesman for Fitzwilliam College said: ‘We have zero tolerance of racism. Dr David Starkey’s recent comments on slavery are indefensible.’

‘Comments are indefensible’