Don’t let Priti Patel divide us

The Traveller Movement and others have written an open letter to the Home Secretary following her recent comments during an online event by the Board Of Deputies for British Jews. Signed by leading academics, race equality organisations and others, the letter calls for a retraction and apology to Gypsies, Roma and Travellers.

We repost a good report in the Independent, a couple of related tweets by Mike Rosen and a letter of protest to the Home Secretary from the Chair and the CEO of the Traveller Movement, with many supporting signatories.

Priti Patel accused of inciting racial hatred after branding Travellers ‘criminal and violent’

Exclusive: Demands for apology for incendiary remarks – which come after police attacked the labelling of community as ‘inherently criminal’

Rob Merrick, The Independent, 25 September 2020

Priti Patel has been accused of inciting racial hatred after branding Travellers “criminal and violent”, sparking demands for a public apology.

The home secretary also claimed a police officer had been “effectively murdered by a Traveller family” – apparently referring to the killing of PC Andrew Harper, who was dragged to his death behind a getaway car last August.

In fact, his teenage killers were cleared of murder and convicted of manslaughter. After the verdict, a senior police officer appealed for an end to the prejudice that made it acceptable to label the Travelling community “inherently criminal”.

Yet Ms Patel, in a Zoom meeting with Jewish leaders, said she was determined to stamp out the “criminality that takes place and that has happened through Traveller communities and unauthorised encampments”.

“We have seen criminality, violence taking place. We saw one particular Traveller criminal – I can’t go into the details of this – but, basically, we saw a police officer that was effectively murdered through a robbery that took place by a Traveller family,” she said.

Simon Woolley, a former Downing Street race adviser, condemned the comments as “wrong, reckless and at worst dangerous, because this type of language easily stirs up racial hatred”.

And John McDonnell, the former Labour shadow chancellor, said: “Abusing Travellers seems to be an acceptable form of racism in the Conservative Party. Let me make it clear. It isn’t and the home secretary should apologise.”

The two are among more than 80 leading academics, race equality organisations, and politicians who have signed a letter to Ms Patel, urging her to retract her “hate speech”.

Coordinated by The Traveller Movement, the letter calls for her to take part in “unconscious bias training” – something many Tory MPs are refusing to do – saying: “Clearly, it is desperately needed.”



Open letter to Priti Patel – Travellers deserve an apology.

Dear Home Secretary,

Re: Anti-Traveller comments made during online event by Board of Deputies of British Jews 

We write to express our concerns regarding your recent anti-Traveller comments made during an online event with the Board of Deputies of British Jews, where you referred to Travellers on unauthorised sites as criminal and violent.  These comments are completely unacceptable and discriminatory in the extreme, especially coming from a Home Secretary.
Romany Gypsies and Irish Travellers are protected from race discrimination under the Equality Act 2010. We consider your comments during this meeting to constitute hate speech as it brands an entire ethnic group as criminal and violent.

You have a duty as a public figure to eliminate unlawful discrimination, advance equality of opportunity and encourage good relations between all groups. Your comments not only pit ethnic groups against one another; they also single out an entire ethnic group as criminal and violent.  As you will be aware, Gypsies, Roma and Travellers experience some of the highest levels of discrimination, hate and hostility of all ethnic groups.

The online hate speech bill in Scotland is currently open for consultation. We ask you to explain how you consider that your comments fit with that bill? How can these communities rely on their experiences being taken seriously when the Home Secretary is wilfully uttering hate speech?

We recently launched a campaign, with Jewish human rights group Rene Cassin calling for all parliamentarians to sign a pledge to cut out hate speech. We think you should sign that pledge. Find further information here.

You should also consider supporting Lord Simon Woolley’s recent call for all sitting parliamentarians to receive unconscious bias training. Clearly, it is desperately needed.

Further, there is no evidence to support your claims that criminality or violence abounds within Traveller sites.

We call for an immediate retraction of these comments, and a public apology made directly to all Traveller, Gypsy and Roma people.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

Pauline Anderson OBE, Chair of the Traveller Movement
Yvonne MacNamara, CEO of the Traveller Movement

Co-signatories:
Baroness Janet Whitaker, Co-chair of the APPG for Gypsies, Travellers and Roma
Martin Docherty-Hughes, Co-chair of the APPG for Gypsies, Travellers and Roma
Lord Simon Woolley, former chair of the Race Disparity Unit’s advisory group
John McDonnell MP
Nadia Whittome MP
Zarah Sultana MP
Claudia Webbe MP
Professor Colin Clark, University of West Scotland
Dr Sindy Joyce, University of Limerick, Ireland
Chris McDonagh, Travellers Against Racism
Julie Ward, former MEP
Brian Dalton, CEO Irish in Britain
Doreen Dove, Gypsy Roma Traveller Social Work Association
Andrew Nixon, Company Secretary of the Association of Independent Showmen
Mushtaq Khan, BME National Co-ordinator
Jabeer Butt, OBE, Chief Executive, Race Equality Foundation
Ilinca Diaconescu, London Gypsies and Travellers
Martin Gallagher, Irish Traveller activist
Maurice McLeod, CEO Race on the Agenda
Trudy Aspinwall, Travelling Ahead
Gypsy Council UK
Mia Hasenson-Gross, Executive Director, Rene Cassin
Mike Doherty and Lisa Smith, Editors of the Travellers’ Times
Sarah Mann, Director Friends, Families and Travellers
Dr Siobhan Spencer, Derbyshire Gypsy Liaison Group
Southwark Travellers Action Group
Helen Jones, CEO LeedsGate Gypsy and Travellers Exchange
Johanna Price, chair for National Federation of Gypsy Liaison Groups
Charles Kwaku-Odoi, Chief Officer at Caribbean and African Health Network
Professor Margaret Greenfields
Professor Kalwant Bhopal, University of Birmingham
Dr Martin Myers, University of Nottingham
Chrissie Browne, Widening Participation Officer, Kings College London
Jenni Formby
Adrian Jones, National Federation of Gypsy Liaison Groups
Article 12, Scotland
Rose Simkins, Chief Executive Stop Hate UK
Natalie Fenton, Goldsmiths University
Professor Imagen Tylor, Lancaster University
Matt Smith, TravellerSpace
UK Jews of Colour Sephardi and Mizrachi United
Black Jewish Lives UK
XR Jews
Josie O Driscoll, Chief Officer Hertfordshire Gypsy Traveller Project
Rose Marie Maughan, Irish Traveller, County Louth, Ireland
Muslim engagement & development
Julian S Morley
Dr Roisin Byrne
Sherrie Smith, Gypsy-Travellers Essex
Professor Brian Cathcart, Kingston University London.
Dr. Sophie Allen, Keel University
Cllr Sally Hinkley, Bexley, London
Karen Lawerence
Allison Hulmes, Gypsy Roma Traveller Social Work Association
Jackie Bolton, Gypsy Roma Traveller Social Work Association
Gemma Lamb
Jenny Manson & Leah Levane, co-chairs Jewish Voice for Labour
Dr Andrew O Baoill, NUI Galway Ireland
Charlotte Mounsey
Helen Belcher, Chair TransActual CIC
Wendy Mounsey
Gemma Mounsey
Chelsea Johnson, Essex
Alice Oatfield,
Llwela Parri, Performing Arts Tutor
Chris Kidd
Alexandra Fiddes
Pongo Pigpen-
Michael Szpakowski, artist
Ciara Bud
Zaid Green
Michael Lomotey
Marie Bowers, Edinburgh University
Bozevannah Boswell, Undergraduate student
Mx Sephe Stewart, Scottish Traveller
Thomas McDonagh
Ann McDonagh
Aahlegish Lally-
Kevin McDermott-Eire
Rebecca Jackson- Galway Eire
Anne Marie Silbigner, Poet, Limerick, Ireland
Sarah Fox, London
Chleo Mulcahey, Teacher
Tom Cardwell, Marketing Professional
Erik Fennly
Kate Chandler, Engagement Coordinator
Ruth Watson
Scarlett Assvadian
Valerie Mackenzie, Aberdeen, Scotland
Neill Chisman
Nicola Siddall-Collier
Will James Byrne
Dr Lynne Tammi
Kevin Blowe, Network for Police Monitoring
Marcia L. Moran
Solma Ahmed
Aycan Akyuz
David Konyot
Chris Barltrop
Huw Sawyer, business writer
John Austin, former MP
Catherine Mitchell
Revd Robert Beard
Ben Goren
Natalie Forster

Comments (7)

  • Anti-fascist says:

    Tyson Fury led a lively demonstration against anti-Traveller racism in Morecambe a couple of days ago. Petitions are good but taking the cause to the streets is even better.

    We need to give the oaf’s Tory government the same sort of welly that Deontay Wilder got.

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  • Mary Davies says:

    Priti Patel should be sacked. SHE IS A DISGRACE.

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  • Doug says:

    Push for a response from BoD, JLM, LFI and JC
    Surely they cannot hide from this
    As for Pritti awful, not surprising when your boss is a liar, charlatan and racist

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  • Perhaps John McDonnell and other Labour Party signatories could address the fact that notorious Labour right-winger, Luke Stanger, who described travellers on Twitter as ‘a nasty social blight’ has still not been expelled unlike members of his CLP such as Anne Mitchell who dared to criticise Israel. Stanger has been suspended for 2 years and we raised this countless times with Jennie Formby

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  • Richard Purdie says:

    Pity that additional endorsements to the letter from grassroots activists were not invited!

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  • JanP says:

    Well done, it would be interesting to see her answer. Yes, more visible demonstrations in solidarity would be good.

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  • rc says:

    Let us keep a very careful eye on the LP tradition of sympathising with, if not whipping up (a la John Lord Mann) hatred and harassment against GRT people. Patel’s incitement is bad enough (and I look forward to the BoD unreservedly denouncing it and comparing it to ‘blood libel’ tradition of ‘community relations’, which it so closely resembles ); after all, LP members are being persecuted for describing the BoD as a bunch of Tories. But still worse is her bill to steal GRT’s homes when they search for sites to which they used to be legally entitled. This bill is full-on pre-1939 Nazism (just as Bob Kerslake reported Kenneth Clarke as discerning ‘more than a whiff of Nazism’ in Theresa May’s hostile environment act. on which most LP MPs abstained.

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