Thread by @zarahsultana

It's fair to say that most people know how terrible Sajid Javid & Priti Patel are. I now want to introduce Munira Mirza who has been appointed by Boris Johnson as the new Director of the Number 10 Policy Unit.

In 2017, she disputed @DavidLammy’s review of racism in the criminal justice system, which highlighted the bias and discrimination faced by BAME people, and said it “exaggerated the problem of racism”.

@DavidLammy She criticised Theresa May’s race audit, remarking that “constant talking about institutional racism & racial bias & unfair treatment is stoking grievance & deterring ethnic minorities from engaging with public services.”

Basically, stop talking about racism & we'll end racism!

@DavidLammy Last year, she defended Boris Johnson’s racist article that compared Muslim women who wear burqas to letterboxes & bank robbers & argued that Johnson was "treating Muslims as equals". In that piece, she referred to the burqa as a “symbol of gender inequality”.

@DavidLammy And if we go back to 2014 - I’m really not sure how I missed this but - gender inequality is OVER:

https://twitter.com/Ndidi1st/status/520578048945823744

@DavidLammy We're meant to celebrate the likes of Sajid Javid, Priti Patel & Munira Mirza getting into positions of power "bc representation!!"

But you can't separate the politics from the people & representation doesnt mean shit if we're not dismantling structural oppression. So no thanks.

@DavidLammy If you want to know more, just check out Munira Mirza's Spiked profile: spiked-online.com/author/munira-…

FYI: Spiked Online (formerly 'Living Marxism') downplayed the Bosnian & Rwandan genocide, deny climate change & receive significant funding from the US far-right's Koch brothers

@DavidLammy More things to add:

On the hijab - in 2017 - Mirza stated: "I find it bizarre that any woman who lives in the west would choose to hide herself like that without coercion and even more bizarre to claim it’s an act of feminism."

What a lovely bunch Johnson has around him.

@DavidLammy On the Windrush Scandal, she wrote in a blog post that "the real lesson is not one of racism, as in the deliberate targeting of ethnic minority groups, rather it is that the process of immigration enforcement needs to be improved."

You really can't make this stuff up.

@DavidLammy The Manifesto Club - which she co-founded - opposes laws to strengthen the vetting of adults working with children, has encouraged universities to give a platform to far-right speakers & supported Oxford Union when it invited Holocaust-denier David Irving & BNP's Nick Griffin.

@DavidLammy Munira Mirza was appointed as Deputy Mayor under Johnson when he was Mayor of London. At the time it was seen as a move to "neutralise accusations that Johnson has used racist language in the past, especially as he seeks to slash grants to ethnic groups."

We are now in Act 2.

@DavidLammy A fierce critic of multiculturalism, her policy recommendations in a 2004 Institute of Ideas paper included deleting the specific duty to promote good relations in the Race Relations Amendment Act (2000) & review existing legal exceptions for minority groups such as Sikhs & Jews.

@DavidLammy 3 hours later I honestly didn't think I'd still be adding to this thread. Just goes to show just how awful her politics are.