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![]() Callaghan: I was wrong on police and race
The Lawrence family's suffering could have been avoided
Records from 1968 have revealed the full extent of Cabinet in-fighting over laws designed to deal with growing numbers of immigrants.
He won the argument on both issues. But on one crucial factor, with implications lasting to the present day, Lord Callaghan now admits he made a serious mistake. Secret documents published for the first time show that as home secretary, Lord Callaghan bowed to pressure and excluded policing from the Race Relations Act.
A number of top-level Cabinet ministers at the time expressed disquiet about Lord Callaghan's decision and many worried about the effect on relations between immigrants and the police.
Earlier that year, Mr Powell had given his now notorious "rivers of blood" speech, where he warned of violent consequences stemming from racial integration. But Lord Callaghan remained opposed to bringing the police under the new law, even arguing against a deal to extend their disciplinary code to make racial discrimination an offence.
Lord Callaghan now admits his regrets: "This was a mistake," he told BBC Two's Leviathan documentary UK Confidential. "We should have insisted on the police being in there at that time, but there was very strong representation and we gave way on it. I regret that we did - we should have insisted on it." Lord Callaghan proposed the Race Relations Act as a complement to stringent new laws he was setting down to slow the influx of immigrants from Kenya. Kenyan Asians had been given UK passports in 1963, just before the country won its independence. Five years later, they were being forced to leave the East African nation and started to arrive in increasing numbers in Britain.
The then Commonwealth secretary, George Thomson, told a Cabinet meeting on 15 February 1968 that "to pass such legislation would be wrong in principle, clearly discrimination on the grounds of colour and contrary to everything we stand for". But the home secretary again managed to get his way - and in this case he still believes he chose the right course.
"I insisted on coupling that with the Race Relations Act, designed to educate and inform public opinion and to create a society in which, although the government might control who came in, once they were in, they should be treated equally."
Leviathan - UK Confidential BBC Two Friday 1 January 6.40pm
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