• IT is with alarm and disgust that we have witnessed in recent weeks leading figures associated with the Conservative Party direct racism towards Sadiq Khan and Diane Abbott.

The Conservative party’s biggest donor used violent, racist, misogynistic, language against Diane Abbott and black women and their former deputy chair spread Islamophobic hate about Sadiq Khan and Muslims.

In both cases the response from the prime minister and his government has been weak and inadequate, letting down our communities by failing to truly stand up to extremism and racism.

With the rise in hate crime, this is no time for cowardice against racist speech; it must be strongly confronted. We write this letter in condemnation of those acts of bigotry and send our solidarity to its victims.

Those who appeal to racism do so intent on dividing us, silencing us, and undoing hard-earned progress, because they’re most afraid of what our progressive, diverse, city stands for. But we’re proud that in Sadiq Khan we have a progressive leader who will always choose humanity over division.

In Camden we define ourselves proudly as an anti-racist organisation with a zero-tolerance approach to racism and discrimination.

Since August 2020, when we reaffirmed our commitment to race equality and standing up against racism, we have been coming together as an organisation and a community to implement meaningful change through our race equality action plan.

Just last week Camden held a wonderful “Waves of Migration” event celebrating the migrant, immigrant, and refugee communities – including Jewish, Irish, Caribbean, Bengali, Iranian, Kosovan, Syrian, Congolese, Somali, and more recently Ukrainian and Afghan – who have enriched our borough and made it their home. It was heartwarming and inspiring to come together, led by young people, in recognition of that.

In Camden we believe the journey to being a diverse and anti-racist organisation is a continuous one involving learning from, and listening to, affected communities and one another.

We call on our prime minister and government to stop paying lip service, or worse inflaming, this grave issue and to begin truly embodying in their actions the anti-racism they claim is demonstrated by the racial diversity of their cabinet.

CLLR GEORGIA GOULD
Leader of Camden Council

CLLR NADIA SHAH
Cabinet Member for Voluntary Sector, Equalities & Cohesion

CLLR SAGAL ABDI-WALI
Deputy Cabinet Member, Borough of Sanctuary & Refugees

CLLR SABRINA FRANCIS
Cabinet Member for Young People & Culture