‘Failure of leadership’

BOTH the Greater Manchester mayor, Andy Burham (left), and his London colleague, Sadiq Khan (right), have accused the government of a failure to understand the way the virus impacts south Asian and black communities.

Speaking exclusively to Eastern Eye, Burnham said the race disparity unit quarterly report in October report lacked credibility. “These may be things that people don’t want to face up to, but they have to face up to them,” he said. “Hard questions have to be asked. Why has Covid-19 hit some communities so much harder than others?

“One reason around (is) people’s professions. But there’s

another; in terms of the quality of housing, overcrowded housing, poorly regulated housing in the private rented sector.

“These are the issues, and it’s because we have an unequal society where there isn’t fairness in terms of access to opportunity that many people are trapped in jobs that don’t support them to have good health and housing, which equally doesn’t promote good health.”

Khan said his team had given the evidence of more south Asians being disproportionately affected by the virus. He told Eastern Eye that “without a doubt” this was a failure of leadership. “Anybody who’s examined the data from Public

Health England, and also the data that councils have produced, and we’ve produced, can’t but conclude there is structural institutional racism still in 2020 across the United Kingdom,” Khan said.

“For the government to be in denial about this is frankly shocking, and it beggars belief. What I’d say to the government generally, is look at the data speak to the experts and recognise there are big problems, structural problems, that still exist in our country, I’m the first person to accept and be proud of the progress we’ve made. We’re not the same country we were 10, 20, 30, 40 years ago, but there are still challenges.