Race commission tells Boris Johnson to scrap use of the term BAME

According to the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities, use of the term BAME should be scrapped.

The commission formed last year by the Prime Minister in response to the Black Lives Matter protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd in the US.

The commission recommended that BAME the abbreviation of Black, Asian and minority ethnic should not be used by public bodies and companies any more with the term becoming “unhelpful and redundant.”

Speaking to Sky News Labour’s shadow justice secretary David Lammy said: “The problem is there are vast differences across and within ethnic minority groups here in the UK.”

“I think there is a call to move away from it [the term BAME]. The question is what do you replace it with?

“We will have to wait and see what the government come forward with this new commission.”

The commission’s report also includes research said to show that the term “ethnic minority” is more popular with people from ethnic minorities than BAME or “people of colour”.

Government minister Nigel Huddleston also told Sky News: “We’ve got to be sensitive to treat people as individuals and sometimes categorisations can be challenging or indeed offensive, even if they’re not intended to be so.”

The full report is expected to be published this week.