Rees-Mogg attacks Sadiq Khan’s ‘loony left-wing’ commission for diversity that could remove statues 

Jacob Rees-Mogg accused Sadiq Khan of overseeing ‘loony left-wing wheezes’ today after the London mayor unveiled a new body that could remove statues and alter street names in the capital that are deemed offensive

The Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm was announced today and will include art historian Aindrea Emelife and chairman of City Sikhs Jasvir Singh among 15 panellists.

The homepage of the commission notes that London’s statues, plaques and street names ‘largely reflect a bygone era’ and it seeks to improve diversity in public spaces.

It prompted a colourful response from patrician Mr Rees-Mogg, who branded the mayor ‘Red Khan’. 

The Commons Leader said councils should be responsible for naming streets, with the MP for North East Somerset advising Sadiq Khan to not ‘interfere in things that aren’t his responsibility’. 

‘Who would have thought that you’d have a more left-wing leader of London than Ken Livingstone? And now we do, and Red Khan is he,’ Mr Rees-Mogg told the Commons.

‘It is quite wrong that these loony left-wing wheezes should be inflicted upon our great metropolis, and I think the mayor in his zeal is potentially treading on the toes of councils anyway – that councils have the right to name streets, by and large, not the Mayor of London, and I don’t think he should interfere in things that aren’t his responsibility.

‘As I was saying on the honours list, we should celebrate and glory in our wonderful history and in the great heroes of our nation going back over centuries.’

It came as Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick said the City of London risks damaging its ‘rich history’ if it goes through with a BLM-inspired bid to topple two statues.

Earlier today the Mayor of London unveiled his diverse 15-strong taskforce to review landmarks in the capital.

The team includes an academic who implied that all international examples of white supremacy can be traced back to Britain, and a campaigner who once confronted the Queen to demand she apologise for historical injustices.   

The City of London Corporation last month declared it would remove two huge artworks depicting ex-Lord Mayor William Beckford and philanthropist MP Sir John Cass from its Guildhall headquarters over their historic links to the slave trade. 

A spokesman for the Mayor of London said in a statement: ‘The mayor makes absolutely no apology for creating a commission to help ensure everyone can take pride in our city’s public landscape.

‘London is one of the most richly diverse cities in the world, yet our public spaces don’t fully represent who we are and the values of tolerance and inclusion that lie at the heart of our city.

‘By bringing together a range of people, through an open selection process, with proven leadership ability, expertise and influence, the commission will work with councils and partners to ensure we tell the full story of our capital.

‘It’s a great pity that the minister seems to have no interest in that diverse history being told.’

The Prime Minister’s press secretary, Allegra Stratton, defended Mr Rees-Mogg’s use of the word ‘loony’.

Asked about the remarks during a Westminster briefing, she said: ‘I don’t think it is as bad as some of the language I have seen and heard.’

She said she would not be ‘particularly upset’ if such a term was used against her, when it was put to her that the term derives from the term ‘lunatic’.

Councillors in the City are set to discuss the statue proposals – laid out in a report by its Tackling Racism Taskforce – in a private meeting today. 

But Mr Jenrick is understood to have written to senior officials, including the Lord Mayor William Russell, urging them to leave the statue where it is.

He said it is in the ‘City’s own interests that heritage and tradition are given robust protection’ in a letter seen by The Daily Telegraph.

He stressed that while ‘history is ridden with moral complexity’, ministers want local authorities to ‘retain and explain – not remove – our heritage’.

Mr Jenrick pointed out that the plans for a new law on cultural and historic heritage were already in motion which would give the the Secretary extra powers to block statue removals.

It means that if any council intends to grant permission for removal of a particular statue but Historic England objects to it, he gets the final say.

In January, the Communities Secretary pointed out that the plan would stop statues being removed by the ‘decree of a cultural committee of town hall militants and woke worthies’.

But even with the proposed law change, The City of London Corporation’s Policy and Resources Committee announced it had voted to remove the statues of Mr Beckford and Sir John from their historic Guildhall headquarters.

The statue of William Beckford – a two-time Lord Mayor of London in the late 1700s who accrued wealth from plantations in Jamaica and held African slaves – will be removed, re-sited and replaced with a new artwork.

Meanwhile, the likeness of Sir John Cass – a 17th and 18th century merchant, MP and philanthropist who also profited from the slave trade – will be returned to its owner, the Sir John Cass Foundation.

Responding to Mr Jenrick’s letter, the council insisted removing them was the ‘correct’ thing to do and all planning permission procedures – and Government guidelines – will be followed. 

A City of London Corporation spokesperson said: ‘We wrote to the Secretary of State last month outlining the reasons behind our decision and the proposed next steps.

‘The Policy and Resources Committee has agreed what we think is the correct response to a sensitive issue.

‘The view of elected members was that removing and re-siting statues linked to slavery is an important milestone in our journey towards a more inclusive and diverse City.

‘A working group will now consider the steps required to remove the statues and look at options for where they could be re-sited, with historical context, on public display.

‘As Guildhall is a Grade I-listed building, we will need to seek planning permissions and we will of course comply with any new legislation which might be brought in.’

The BLM movement was sparked by the killing of George Floyd in the US where he was arrested by police.

Protesters tore down a statue of Edward Colston on Sunday, June 7, on the same day a memorial to Winston Churchill in London was defaced with the words ‘was a racist’ written on a plinth underneath.

It prompted a wave of statues being targeted with graffiti or being attacked during protests, culminating in some statues, including ones of Nelson Mandela and Winston Churchill, being covered up to be protected from vandals.

The Topple the Racists campaign launched a comprehensive list of statues it wanted to see removed as it believed the names behind the monuments held racist beliefs. 

The list – compiled by the Stop Trump Coalition – pinpoints the locations of 125 under-fire landmarks featured on a map.

The website lists the Beckford Statue on it’s map, with a caption reading: ‘Inherited sole interest in 13 sugar plantations in Jamaica and owned approximately 3,000 enslaved Africans.

‘Served in Jamaican National Assembly before returning to England in 1744.’

Outrage over statues led to Oriel College at Oxford University voting to remove a statue of Cecil Rhodes, a colonialist politician in southern Africa in the 19th century.

Boris Johnson wrote last year: ‘We cannot now try to edit or censor our past. We cannot pretend to have a different history. The statues in our cities and towns were put up by previous generations.

‘They had different perspectives, different understandings of right and wrong. But those statues teach us about our past, with all its faults.

‘To tear them down would be to lie about our history, and impoverish the education of generations to come.’ 

Tory MP Gareth Bacon said today: ‘No politician should be allowed to erase large swathes of British history. But that’s exactly what Sadiq Khan’s new unelected statue-toppling commission has been appointed to do.

‘Worryingly, the Mayor is responsible for the statues of our nation’s greatest heroes in Parliament Square and Trafalgar Square. That puts Winston Churchill’s statue and Nelson’s Column in the crosshairs of Khan’s activist commission.

‘It’s not hard to imagine Khan pandering to loony protesters’ demands to tear monuments down. The Mayor has repeatedly jumped on passing bandwagons to distract from his failure to keep our city safe.

‘If Sadiq Khan tries to topple statues in these national squares, the Government must take responsibility for them away from City Hall.’

Fury over Sadiq Khan’s woke statue taskforce: London mayor unveils monuments commission – including social rights activist who praised people who defaced a statue of Sir Robert Geffrye and academic who said white supremacy can be traced back to Britain

By Jack Elsom for MailOnline

Sadiq Khan was today accused of ‘reducing London’s history to politics’ after unveiling his diversity taskforce to review landmarks in the capital.

The 15-strong team includes an academic who implied that all international examples of white supremacy can be traced back to Britain, and a campaigner who once confronted the Queen to demand she apologise for historical injustices. 

The project has come under fire from politicians concerned that figures of our national past could be erased by ‘unelected activists’.

But the Mayor of London stressed the purpose of the Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm was not to remove statues, only to ‘raise public understanding’. 

Statues, street names, building names and memorials in the capital will all come under the spotlight.

The thorny subject of evaluating existing statues will be probed by the panel – many of whom have already been publicly outspoken on the matter.  

Toyin Agbetu, a social rights activist, praised activists who painted red the hands of slaver Robert Geffrye’s statue in Hackney, to symbolise the ‘blood on his hands’.

He hailed them as committing ‘a transgressive, yet progressive act of public service’ by ‘making visible the history and human cost of those involved in such monstrous evil’.  

Agbetu grabbed headlines in 2007 after disturbing a ceremony at Westminster Abbey marking the abolition of slavery. 

With both the Queen and PM Tony Blair present, he yelled: ‘You should be ashamed. We should not be here. This is an insult to us.’

The Commission also includes prominent art critic Aindrea Emelife, who supported the statue of Bristol slave trader Edward Colston being replaced with a BLM activist.

Colston was memorably ripped down and thrown into the harbour during protests last year.

It has been replaced with a likeness of Jen Reid, the BLM protester who climbed up on the empty plinth and clenched her fist in the style of Black Power.  

At the time, Ms Emelife she described ‘seeing the crane lift this up onto the plinth from our lookout point. The rush of adrenaline as this project is realised guerrilla style.’ 

City Hall said the panel was selected through an ‘open recruitment process’ and will serve initially for two years.

It also includes famous faces such as Emmy-winning actor Riz Ahmed, who has starred in Star Wars: Rogue One and US series The Night Of. 

A staunch critic of the Prime Minister, on a television show he once called Mr Johnson ‘an out-and-out complete c***’ who is ‘overtly racist’ and ‘blatantly lies to the public’.   

He also said he hates the word ‘diversity’ because it does not equate with true representation.  

Fellow panellist, business academic Lynette Nabbosa, who founded an organisation for role models to engage with black youth, has previously suggested that white supremacy is rooted in British history.

She wrote in October: ‘The UK seems to be the common denominator in atrocities across the world. 

‘No matter where you find examples of white supremacy, all roads lead back to my country of birth.

‘It was the UK’s racism that birthed slavery and colonialism. We say it is in the past but our schools, colleges, universities, streets, museums etc have never stopped honouring the enforcers of our oppression.’ 

Shaun Bailey, Conservative candidate for London Mayor, said: ‘London is a city built on history — sometimes bad, more often good, and always complicated. But Sadiq Khan wants to reduce our history to politics.

‘A commission of fifteen unelected activists should not get to decide which statues to pull down and which streets to rename — which history my children are allowed to see.

‘My preference is always to put up new statues instead of tearing down old ones. That’s how we truly celebrate our black role models and pioneering women.’

Mr Khan announced his intention to establish the Commission last July following the police killing of George Floyd in the United States.

The death reverberated across the world, and spurred activists in the UK to topple and deface statues of historical figures. 

Announcing the panel, Mr Khan said: ‘For far too long, too many Londoners have felt unrepresented by the statues, street names and building names all around them, and it’s important that we do what we can to ensure our rich and diverse history is celebrated and properly commemorated in our city.

‘I’m delighted to bring together this inspiring group of leaders from across London to form the Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm. Each member brings with them great insight and knowledge that will help to improve the representation of our public landscape.’