Sorry Starkey in freedom of speech warning

DAVID STARKEY has said “resentments will fester” if public discussions on race are shut down, as he issued an apology for claiming slavery was not genocide because there are “so many damn blacks” still around.

The historian and television presenter, 75, made the comments during an interview while addressing the Black Lives Matter movement.

In a statement yesterday, Prof Starkey admitted his “bad mistake” had cost him “every distinction and honour acquired in a long career”, but added that freedom of speech should not exclude conversations around race.

“Central also to British history is a tradition of free speech,” he said.

“If that tradition is suppressed on questions of race, resentments will fester rather than disappear.

“My principal regret is that my blundering use of language and the penalty it has incurred will further restrict the opportunities for proper debate.

“For it is only open debate that will heal the divisions in our society.”

Speaking about his use of the phrase “so many damn blacks”, he said: “It was intended to emphasise, in hindsight with awful clumsiness, the numbers who survived the horrors of the slave trade. Instead, it came across as a term of racial abuse.

“I am very sorry for it and I apologise unreservedly for the offence it caused.”

Prof Starkey has resigned his honorary fellowship at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, while Canterbury Christ Church University terminated his role as visiting professor. Lancaster University has also launched a review of his status as an honorary graduate.