Anti-racism chief slams Sturgeon’s ‘virtue signalling’
Fury at First Minister’s white privilege test ‘fail’
NICOLA Sturgeon was last night accused of ‘virtue signalling’ over racism by one of the UK’s leading equality campaigners.
In a highly damaging intervention, Sir Trevor Phillips, the former chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), criticised the First Minister over white privilege tests.
The Scottish Government has called for all teachers to take the test, which involves questions designed to show white people the benefits they enjoy due to their skin colour, and which ethnic minorities do not have.
Ms Sturgeon was a guest on Sir Trevor’s Sky News show in September when she signalled that she and her Ministers would also answer the questions.
But when questioned last week by The Scottish Mail on Sunday, the Government admitted Ms Sturgeon had not completed the test.
Sir Trevor said: ‘I am disappointed, because when she spoke to me she seemed very sincere about it. This seems like yet another example of people in government asking everybody else to do something they would not. It is a shame she is not following it up herself.’
The 68-year-old is the youngest of ten children whose parents emigrated in 1950 from the then British Guiana.
Sir Trevor graduated with a degree in chemistry from Imperial College London and has become one of the most prominent commentators on British public life.
He has won awards for his journalism, chairs the Index of Censorship and has served as founding chair for the Greater London Authority and the EHRC.
He said: ‘Either they believe in all of this, as they do on the gender recognition issue, or what they are really doing is some virtue signalling but unfortunately that comes at other people’s expense.
‘I would bracket this with their decision to allow self-identification on sex – either you believe this, and you need to be clear with the public that you are going to impose these rather new views on everybody else – or else stop saying it.’
The Tories also criticised Ms Sturgeon for failing to take the test while demanding it of teachers.
Conservative MSP Pam Gosal said: ‘Having agreed to take this test six months ago, it is not unreasonable to have expected the First Minister to have taken it by now.’
Developed in the US, the tests were drawn up to show how much white privilege a person has as a result of their racial background.
This includes asking about experiences with the police, how easy it is to find beauty products to match skin tones and the availability in supermarkets of food from their cultural heritage.
The purpose of the tests is to make white people understand they benefit from their skin colour without realising this.
In Scotland the tests are included in the Building Racial Literacy Programme, set up by schools quango Education Scotland to address racial matters in the classroom.
While she was being interviewed by Sir Trevor, on his programme Trevor Phillips on Sunday, Ms Sturgeon said: ‘If there are things which my Cabinet should do to make sure that what we are asking others to do are things that we are prepared to do ourselves, I am happy to do that.’
But six months after the show a Freedom of Information request by this newspaper shows Ms Sturgeon has still not taken the test.
The Scottish Government did not comment specifically on Sir Trevor’s remarks, but said: ‘The First Minister has not yet undertaken the test but remains happy to do so at an appropriate time.’
‘Either you believe this, or else stop saying it’