By James Simons-
Historian David Starkey has been accused of racism for claiming Rishi Sunak has not engaged with the coronation because he is “not fully grounded in our culture”.
Starkey, who has been accused of making racist remarks in the past, was discussing an alleged lack of apathy by the British government in King Charles’s coronation, after a select number of MPs were invited to the ceremony on Saturday, according to reports.
Host Andrew Pierce, put it to Starkey that the prime minister had been “detached, or at least semi-detached, from this coronation”.
S Starkey replied: “Invisible. I think one of the reasons that I think a lot has gone wrong, for example, why parliament has not been properly represented at the coronation of a parliamentary monarchy, is because the government isn’t interested in the constitution.
“The prime minister, the man of immense talent, of extraordinary skill, but really, not fully grounded in our culture,” he continued.
“I know that’s a difficult and controversial thing to say, but I think it’s true. And, again, this coronation is going to highlight far too much our differences rather than what unites us.”
Asked if he was speaking “in terms of religion”, the 78-year-old agreed: “In terms of religion.”
His acknowledgement that the comments are controversial has been interpreted to provide evidence of the Mps racism because the only grounds for the statement is that Sunak , though British is the child of African born Hindu parents.
The prime minister, who was born in the Uk to African-born Hindu parents of Indian Punjabi descent, will be reading a passage from the Bible during the coronation.
It was reported in February that around 80 MPs and peers are invited to the coronation. There are 650 MPs in the UK. It was reported that the slimmed-down figure had caused uproar among the parliamentarians. In 1953, 800 MPs and 910 peers were invited to the late Queen’s coronation.
In 2020, Starkey told the rightwing commentator Darren Grimes that “slavery was not genocide, otherwise there wouldn’t be so many damn blacks in Africa or in Britain would there? You know, an awful lot of them survived.”
The former chancellor Sajid Javid described those comments as racist and “a reminder of the appalling views that still exist” in Britain.
Starkley is also on record telling BBC Newsnight after the summer riots of 2011, Starkey said: “A substantial amount of the chavs have become black. The whites have become black; a particular sort of violent destructive, nihilistic gangster culture has become the fashion.”
He also gave an interview to the Telegraph in which he said statistics “appeared” to show a black propensity to violence.