Opinion: ‘Celebrating our cultural richness’

This is Black History Month. It’s always a fantastic opportunity to celebrate the contribution that black people, and those with black heritage, have made to our country’s history.

We did just that in the House of Commons this week, where I spoke in our BHM debate.

Britain’s history is not perfect, but I believe it shows us to be an open and tolerant country and this is something to be proud of. Black History Month is full of examples.

This year, I was particularly pleased to learn about Allan Glaisyer Minns. As a local doctor in the sleepy market town of Thetford, he became the first black Mayor in the UK. Astonishingly, that was back in 1904.

I’m also delighted that he was a Conservative Mayor. I gather that Thetford is planning a statue in his honour. It should get one up pronto, because black history is British history – and British history belongs to all of us.

This is a particularly important point for a diverse city like Peterborough. Our common identity as British is not a matter of race. Instead, we are defined by our shared institutions and, above all, by the Crown, Parliament and our common law.

British history – the history of our institutions and their hard-won evolution – is relevant to all of us. This relevance is not determined by the colour of one’s skin.

Our city continues to welcome people from across the world, not just to live here but to belong here. Our cultural richness is something we celebrate.

Black History Month is part of that. In the Commons, I paid tribute to Bernadetta Omondi (pictured), who chairs the Peterborough Racial Equality Council and our Black History Month committee.

Bernadetta and her team are a tremendous force for good. We cannot reach our potential as a city unless people of colour reach their potential. She symbolises that ‘One City’ message.

It contrasts completely with the divisive activism and theories of the hard left, which some Labour MPs were eager to promote in their speeches. However, the star of the debate was my colleague, Kemi Badenoch.

Our Equalities Minister grew up in West Africa, before arriving in the UK as an immigrant.

She heard Labour and hit back: “I want to speak about a dangerous trend in race relations that has come far too close to home in my life, which is the promotion of critical race theory, an ideology that sees my blackness as victimhood and their whiteness as oppression. I want to be absolutely clear that the Government stand unequivocally against critical race theory.”

Kemi was also firm on the importance of teaching of British history: “Our curriculum does not need to be decolonised, for the simple reason that it is not colonised. We should not apologise for the fact that British children primarily study the history of these islands.”

She had these words of guidance to schools: “We do not want teachers to teach their white pupils about white privilege and inherited racial guilt. Let me be clear that any school that teaches those elements of critical race theory as fact, or that promotes partisan political views such as defunding the police without offering a balanced treatment of opposing views, is breaking the law.”

I am proud that we finally have an Equalities Minister who takes on those who seek to divide us.