Race tsar hits out at woke ideology that led to workers refusing to section Nottingham triple killer because he was black

The government’s former racing tsar has slammed the woke ideology that led mental health workers to decide not to split up a murderous paranoid schizophrenic because he was black.

Lord Sewell, who led a ground-breaking race report in 2021, said ‘diversity, equity and inclusion’ (DEI) drives were distorting some professionals’ decision-making.

He also touched on a culture of ‘white guilt’ that left people ‘too scared to state the obvious’ and prevented organizations from adopting the report’s recommendations.

He was speaking as an investigation continues into Valdo Calocane, who fatally stabbed 19-year-old students Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, as well as 65-year-old Ian Coates, in Nottingham in 2023.

Last month, it was revealed that mental health workers decided not to divide Calocane following the violence in 2020.

It is thought they feared it might be racist after consulting research which said there was an ‘overrepresentation of young black men in custody’.

Despite this, he was detained four more times before starting his killing spree.

Lord Sewell addressed the case at an event at the Center for Social Justice on Tuesday night to mark the fifth anniversary of his report examining whether Britain is institutionally racist.

He was speaking as the investigation continues into Valdo Calocane (pictured), who fatally stabbed 19-year-old students Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, as well as 65-year-old Ian Coates, in 2023.

Last month, it was revealed that mental health workers decided not to split Calocane despite the violence in 2020, after consulting a study that said black men in custody were over-represented. From left to right: victims Ian Coates, 65, Barnaby Webber, 19, and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, 19

He said: ‘There’s a few things we call [in the report]in the field of mental health.

‘As you know, there is a problem with the murders of these three men and we know there is disparity in the incarceration of black men.’

Confirming that he was referring to the Calocane case, he continued: ‘We were saying that you have to go upriver to find out why this disparity is there.

‘[People] We didn’t really understand what the causes of inequality were when it came to this mental health issue.

‘Get to the point – not your DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) or your discussion of the fact that certain ethnic minorities are disproportionately there.

‘They may be disproportionately there because they present with this disease.’

He added that some of the disparity could be explained by the fact that there has been a ‘historic mistrust of the system’ among black people, preventing them from seeking help early.

‘This disease, as a disease, can be explained by people not presenting early enough,’ he added.

‘They make presentations too late in a crisis environment, and that’s when the disproportionality emerges.’

Lord Sewell was chairman of the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities, a group set up by Boris Johnson to investigate whether Britain was a racist country following the Black Lives Matter protests in 2021.

Lord Sewell was chairman of the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities, a group set up by Boris Johnson to investigate whether Britain was a racist country following the Black Lives Matter protests of 2021 (pictured).

The landmark review sparked outrage on the Left after it revealed that many ethnic minority children were often performing as well or better at school than the lowest-performing white pupils.

At the time, Conservative ministers warned ministers should take the needs of the white working class into account, saying the report revealed how ‘stuck’ such groups were.

On Tuesday, Lord Sewell said the report had acted as an ‘engine’ but did not ‘sufficiently drive’ change.

He added: ‘We never actually went out the door because people were so scared. ‘We’re talking about this white guilt, this giddiness, just stating these things that are obvious.’

Part of the problem, he said, was that the results of his report were unexpected, especially in the wake of protests in the United States over the police shooting of African American George Floyd.

‘With no agenda, no predetermined outcomes, we just followed the evidence,’ he said.

‘And after the George Floyd disruption, no one expected that we would focus on white people.’

Asked during the event whether he agreed that England was a racist country, Lord Sewell said that the country had ‘improved significantly’ during his lifetime.

He said he felt his 30-year-old daughter had better experiences in this regard than when she was younger.

‘If I compare this to what I went through going to school, [it was] day and night,’ he said.

‘What we had was terrible. “He’s in a different world.”

He cited Nigerian-born Tory leader Kemi Badenoch as an example of how much the country has changed in recent years.

‘Even four or five years ago if you thought the leader of the Conservative party would be a black woman of Nigerian descent, people would laugh at you,’ he said.

‘This is where we are in Britain. So in that sense it’s better.

‘My experience as a black man in England is that the situation has improved significantly.’

Latest figures from the CSJ show that only a third of white students on free school meals achieve the minimum grades needed to pass GCSE English and Maths subjects.

Meanwhile, more than 80 percent of Chinese students and almost 70 percent of Indian and Bangladeshi students, all of whom received free school meals, did so.

Earlier this week he said: ‘Working-class white boys from the poorest homes are still at the bottom of the class. Our warnings were ignored.’