Oliver Letwin accused of racism over 1980s riot comments

Files released by the National Archives record remarks made by Mr Letwin when he was an adviser in Margaret Thatcher’s Number 10 policy unit following a string of serious disturbances in English cities.

In the autumn of 1985, trouble had broken out in the Handsworth area of Birmingham and Brixton, south London, as well in Broadwater Farm, Tottenham, where PC Keith Blakelock was stabbed to death.

The documents show that some Conservative ministers appeared to accept the argument that the riots had complex causes, and something should be done to tackle deprivation in mainly black inner-city areas.

Home secretary Douglas Hurd pointed to underlying social and economic problems in the riot-stricken areas which he said had a “specific ethnic (notably black) dimension”.

The environment secretary Kenneth Baker wanted to refurbish crumbling tower blocks, and the employment secretary, Lord Young, suggested a scheme to encourage new black middle-class entrepreneurs as a “force for stability” in their communities.

But Eton-educated Mr Letwin, writing a memo with fellow future Tory MP Hartley Booth, urged Mrs Thatcher to reject these arguments.

The note said: “The root of social malaise is not poor housing, or youth ‘alienation’, or the lack of a middle class.

“Lower-class, unemployed white people lived for years in appalling slums without a breakdown of public order on anything like the present scale; in the midst of the depression, people in Brixton went out, leaving their grocery money in a bag at the front door, and expecting to see groceries there when they got back.

“Riots, criminality and social disintegration are caused solely by individual characters and attitudes. So long as bad moral attitudes remain, all efforts to improve the inner cities will founder.”

‘Disco and drug trade’

The memo poured scorn on the various cabinet plans to regenerate black urban areas, saying: “David Young’s new entrepreneurs will set up in the disco and drug trade; Kenneth Baker’s refurbished council blocks will decay through vandalism combined with neglect; and people will graduate from temporary training or employment programmes into unemployment or crime.”

It said government policies would only work if they changed attitudes to “personal responsibility, basic honesty, the law and the police”.

Measures suggested by Mr Letwin and Mr Booth included placing “young delinquents” in “good” foster homes and a new “youth corps” to promote “moral values”.

In a follow-up paper, Mr Booth attacked plans for a £10 million communities programme, suggesting it would do little more than “subsidise Rastafarian arts and crafts workshops”.

The policy unit’s proposals were strongly criticised at the time by cabinet secretary Sir Robert Armstrong, who warned the prime minister that they raised “very large and problematic questions”.

Letwin apology

In a statement, Mr Letwin – now a Cabinet Office minister – said: “I want to make clear that some parts of a private memo I wrote nearly 30 years ago were both badly worded and wrong.

“I apologise unreservedly for any offence these comments have caused and wish to make clear that none was intended.”

I apologise unreservedly for any offence these comments have caused and wish to make clear that none was intended. Oliver Letwin

Labour MP David Lammy, who grew up alongside the Broadwater Farm estate in Tottenham, north London, said the comments were “breathtaking”.

The riots, he said, “had nothing to do with moral bankruptcy and everything to do with social decay and the appalling relations between black youths and the police”.

He added: “Letwin’s statement is an indication of how the powerful can be so utterly, utterly out of touch with what’s going on.”

Labour deputy leader Tom Watson said: “Oliver Letwin’s comments are evidence of an ignorant and deeply racist view of the world. He obviously cannot justify his opinions but he must explain himself and apologise without delay.

Oliver Letwin’s comments are evidence of an ignorant and deeply racist view of the world. Tom Watson

“A great many people will be asking whether, as a government minister, he still holds such offensive and divisive views.”

Trevor Phillips, former head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, described Mr Letwin’s comments as “pretty outrageous” and said his apology is “not quite” enough.

But he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I don’t think these remarks would have raised a single eyebrow at the time.”

He added: “Now actually if Oliver really wants to be contrite then I think what we have to hear pretty quickly is something about today, how they are going to make good on the Prime Minister’s conference pledge to attack race inequality in Britain.”