Fact check: the UN Special Rapporteur’s report on British racism

The first instinct of many people towards Tendayi Achiume, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Human Rights who finished her 11 day visit to Britain yesterday by claiming that Britain is in the grip of a Brexit-related upsurge in racial intolerance and discrimination, will be to tell her to keep her nose out of our affairs. I am not going to fall into the trap of offering material which could be used to try to prove her point.

So let me just repeat, as I wrote here on the day she arrived, that I am delighted she has chosen Britain for one of her first visits since her appointment last September – the second visit to Britain by a UN special rapporteur on human rights in 25 years – and I hope she follows it up swiftly with visits to the world’s other 200 nations, many of which have yet to receive their first such attention.