Angela Rayner MP, Labour’s Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities, commenting on the findings of the United Nations Committee to Eliminate Racial Discrimination (CERD) report, said:

“The findings of the UN Committee to Eliminate Racial Discrimination (CERD) will come as no surprise to people from Black, Asian and Ethnic Minority communities. It highlights the serious levels of inequality and disadvantage which many experience in education, employment, health and the criminal justice system, simply because they are from a minority community.

"I share the Committee’s concerns about the Tories’ dangerous plans to scrap the Human Rights Act 1998, which offers such vital protection to minority communities. A watered down ‘British Bill of Rights’ will fail to protect people in our BAME communities from discrimination.

"This important report shows that the Tories’ destructive austerity programme has contributed significantly to race inequality in the UK. Cuts to the NHS, legal aid, the Equality and Human Rights Commission and the introduction of extortionate tribunal fees, were all identified as disproportionately affecting people from the BAME community.

"This is the latest in a long line of reports from respected organisations detailing the entrenched disadvantage and discrimination facing people from BAME communities, and yet this Tory Government is still failing to act.”

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