Rishi Sunak has denounced a government document on benefit assessments that had to be withdrawn after The Independent revealed that it included a racist slur. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) guidance, which was first issued in 2010 to help doctors assess disability benefit claims but was still in use last month, referred to Black people as being of the “N*****d race”.
Asked about the document, which has now been scrapped after the issue was raised by this publication, the PM’s official spokesperson said: “It is clearly offensive and unacceptable. We do not condone the language in this 13-year-old document.”
Mr Sunak’s criticism came as a chorus of politicians and campaigners hit out at the document, which refers specifically to assessments for osteoporosis and was issued as a guide to doctors in Northern Ireland. Simon Woolley praised The Independent for “highlighting this awful discriminatory labelling by government officials”. “It is not just that it was a racial slur,” Lord Woolley added. “It is also indicative of how demeaning[ly] Black people in this country are seen.”
Tory MP Sir Peter Bottomley, a member of the all-party parliamentary group on race and community, said officials responsible for the advice “ought to hang their heads in shame”. He called on the DWP to search through the rest of its guidance to ensure there are no other terms “which should not have been in current guidance, and should not have been in current guidance for 100 years”.
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