It is clear what action needs to be taken to fight racial inequality – the government just has to do it

Editorial: Various reports into this issue have made hundreds of recommendations between them and they should all have been fully implemented long ago

Demonstrators take part in a Black Lives Matter protest in Leeds (PA)

Boris Johnson’s great hero Winston Churchill, a figure once again looming large over national life, famously had some special red stickers made up that he could affix to wartime official memos when he wanted something done immediately: “ACTION THIS DAY”.

It seems Churchill’s biographer and successor, 80 years on, is not always so swift to act. Instead of action this day on racial injustice, Mr Johnson promises some vague internal “commission” that might come up with some suggestions by Christmas. Mr Johnson tells us that: “We should stop the sense of victimisation and discrimination.” Which implies a distinction between what is being protested against now and what he calls “real racism” which we must “look carefully at”.

The obvious response to that condescending attitude is: “How would you know?” Mr Johnson makes much of his cosmopolitan ancestry but he cannot know the hurt of a casual racial insult, the stomach-churning disgust at walking past a monument to slavery or indeed the devastating impact of discrimination over a job or promotion.

It is certainly not for the prime minister to suggest what does and does not induce a feeling, or reality, of victimisation and discrimination. If people of colour feel it, then that should be good enough for him. He might also reflect a little more carefully about what his own past writings have done to make people feel victimised and discriminated against. From the piccaninnies with the watermelon smiles to the Muslim women with the “letter box” veils, and once quoting approvingly (in 2007) Churchill’s assertion that there was “no stronger retrograde force” in the world than Islam, adding: “It is time to get deep down and dirty and examine the central charge made by everyone from Winston Churchill to the pope, namely that the problem with the Islamic world is Islam.”

No wonder he wants to kick the debate to the other side of Christmas when, presumably, the impending issue of a no-deal Brexit and the continuing response to the coronavirus pandemic may bury more bad news for him. It is so crude a tactic it suggests Downing Street takes the electorate for fools.

The shadow justice secretary, David Lammy, who is better qualified to comment on this issue than the prime minister, has it right. Many reviews have already taken place, the time for action is now.

We had the Macpherson report into the death of Stephen Lawrence and institutional racism in policing two decades ago, as well as the Scarman report into similar issues almost three decades ago. In more recent years there has been the review into workplace discrimination by Baroness McGregor-Smith; the review by Mr Lammy himself into the criminal justice system; Wendy Williams’ Windrush Lessons Learned Review; the Race Disparity Audit ordered by Theresa May and the Angiolini review of deaths in police custody.

Just a few weeks ago, Professor Kevin Fenton’s review that found “racism, discrimination and social inequalities” contributed to the disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on people from Bame communities. The recommendations of that report have been subsumed into this new non-independent Downing Street commission.

In other words, there is no secret about what needs to be done. The various reports into these issues have all made hundreds of recommendations between them and they should all have been fully implemented long ago, and society changed for the better.

These things matter. Britain is still waiting for action this day.