Khan activist in ‘racist’ attack on Abbott

Mayor’s appointee said Labour MP was disloyal to community and Lammy was a ‘poor example’

AN activist appointed by Sadiq Khan to review London’s statues has been labelled “racist” after he accused Diane Abbott of being “disloyal to her own community” and David Lammy of being a “poor example of Africans”.

Toyin Agbetu, who last week was appointed to the Mayor of London’s Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm, made a series of disparaging racial remarks about senior black Labour politicians in an online blog, The Sunday Telegraph can disclose.

Shaun Bailey, the black Conservative candidate for Mayor of London, has urged Mr Khan to remove the commissioner due to his “racist past”.

It comes after the mayor faced criticism over the composition of the commission to review London’s landmarks, with historians claiming it lacked expertise and excluded conservative opinions. In a blog condemning Ms Abbott’s decision to run for the Labour leadership in 2010, Mr Agbetu said the Hackney MP had been “disloyal to her own community and, worst yet, with minimal coercion, willingly betrayed herself ” by engaging in frontline politics. He added that Labour would not win black votes by “elevating a woman who – to be frank – the African community is embarrassed about.”

Mr Agbetu directed similar criticism at Mr Lammy, the shadow justice secretary, Baroness Scotland, the SecretaryGeneral of the Commonwealth, and Baroness Amos, who has served as British High Commissioner to Australia.

“Lammy, Amos and Scotland are all poor examples of Africans whose quest for influence and status has dwarfed their duty to human rights, social justice for African people and opposition to imperialism,” he said, adding: “Many Africans in positions of status cling to their scraps of celebrity as if they are owed it by virtue of their ethnicity.”

Mr Khan has previously faced criticism for the appointment of Mr Agbetu after it emerged the activist heckled the Queen during a 2007 service to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade.

Mr Agbetu was also found to have posted antivax content online on the Pfizer vaccine last November. “Apparently a magical vaccine is around the corner from the Viagra specialists,” he posted. “There’s a lot of nonsense out there... coming from clowns in No 10.”

While the new City Hall commission is intended to diversify London’s landmarks, critics say the panel omits conservative opinions and historians.

Oxford Professor Nigel Biggar recently warned: “To compose a panel without any politically conservative historians lets the false ‘decolonising’ assumptions go unchallenged.”

In a letter to Mr Khan calling on Mr Agbetu to be removed, Mr Bailey said: “For the safety of Londoners, you must remove Agbetu from his post and denounce his lies.” A spokesman for the Mayor of London said: “Toyin Agbetu was appointed for his significant expertise, knowledge and experience.”

Mr Agbetu declined to comment.