Tory MPs’ anger at taxpayer-funded ‘divisive activism’ on race issues at British Library

THE British Library should lose its taxpayer funding over “divisive activism” that promotes Black Lives Matter and Labour causes, MPs have said, after documents unearthed by The Sunday Telegraph.

Internal emails seen by this newspaper reveal a policy-guiding staff group claimed racial “colour blindness” and believing mankind is “one human family” are examples of “covert white supremacy”.

As an “anti-racist” antidote to perceived prejudice, resources disseminated at the library urge employees to give money to Black Lives Matter and support the work of Diane Abbott, the Labour politician.

White staff also asked “fellow white colleagues” to educate themselves with a reading list covering their purported racial privilege, and the works of Marxist authors. Leadership at the library, which receives more than £92million in funding from the Government, declared in July that the institution would become an “actively” anti-racist organisation following feedback from staff.

Members of the Bame Network, which helped compile material seen by this newspaper, will now lead a working group steering the library’s future approach to race. Neil O’Brien, a Conservative MP, has said that public money given to the library should not support outright activism.

“I don’t think taxpayers want to fund this kind of divisive activity,” Mr O’Brien said. “Taxpayer-funded institutions should not be pushing highly contentious materials like this on their staff.”

Material sent in an internal email at the library was intended to show “ways that white people can support the Black Lives Matter movement through both action and education”. This included copious reading material on slavery, policing and prison in the US, alongside a chart outlining overt and covert forms of “white supremacy”.

It has been pointed out that the definitions used in this documentation would render the Universal Declaration of Human Rights a racist document due to its opening claims about a “human family”. Staff urged their colleagues to donate money to help those arrested at protests, and pledge support for Ms Abbott’s petition with Stand Up To Racism for a public inquiry into Bame deaths due to Covid-19.

Ben Bradley, a Conservative MP, said: “Identity politics is unhealthy and unhelpful. I cannot understand how these people don’t see that.”

The library referred The Telegraph to its public statement of anti-racism when asked about activism at the institution.