Peerage snub for top black bishop John Sentamu

Downing Street has delivered an extraordinary snub to Britain’s first black archbishop by failing to award him an automatic life peerage.

As Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, 71, should have been given a life peerage to enable him to continue sitting in the House of Lords in a personal capacity after his retirement on June 7, when he ceased to be one of the 26 Church of England bishops who sit as lords spiritual.

However, No 10 failed to announce his peerage at his retirement — breaking the precedent set for his predecessor, Lord Hope, and the immediate past Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, who were made life peers when they laid down their croziers.

Lord Woolley, founder of Operation Black Vote, said: “John Sentamu is a hero and a role model not just to black Britain but to Great Britain. The fact that he has not been afforded a peerage is nothing short of scandalous. Given the deluge of peerages to friends and family, of which not one was black, I sincerely hope this is an oversight that will be rapidly corrected.

“There is a growing feeling that confronting deep-seated racial equalities is not a priority and many people will see this as part of that narrative. I sincerely hope that No 10 will show its leadership not only in elevating a good man who has served our nation but to send the right signal in what is, after all, Black History Month.”

Boris Johnson’s list of 36 life peers in July included the former Brexit Party MEP Claire Fox who, when she was a member of the Revolutionary Communist Party, refused to condemn the IRA’s planting of the Warrington bomb. He also found room for his brother Jo Johnson, a former MP. There were no new peers from the black community.

Last night the government sought to excuse the snub, blaming it on the need to slim down the Upper House. It said: “The size of the House of Lords needs addressing. But given retirements and other departures, some new members are needed to ensure that the Lords has the appropriate expertise and it continues to fulfil its role in scrutinising and revising legislation.”

According to figures compiled by Operation Black Vote, only 12 of the 794 peers sitting in the Lords are of black origin, including Doreen Lawrence, Floella Benjamin and Paul Boateng.

Lord Carey, who served as Archbishop of Canterbury from 1991 to 2002, said: “John Sentamu is a pioneer for the black community and should be given the same honour.”

Peter Bottomley, father of the House of Commons and a friend of Sentamu, said: “There has been carelessness and a lack of sensitivity. The sooner the mistake is rectified the better.”

As a young man, Sentamu was beaten up by Idi Amin’s thugs in his native Uganda and, as archbishop, refused to wear a dog collar in protest at Robert Mugabe’s crimes against humanity in Zimbabwe. He advised the Stephen Lawrence inquiry and chaired the review into the murder of Damilola Taylor, a 10 year-old schoolboy. On June 7, the day of his farewell service, Black Lives Matter protesters toppled the statue of the Bristol slave trader Edward Colston.

It took until June 26 for No 10 to tell Sentamu that he was in line for a peerage, asking him to confirm his suitability and willingness to accept. But instead of a formal letter confirming that his name would be among the 36 appointments on July 31, he received a phone message through intermediaries, telling him he had missed out and would have to wait until the next round.

Sentamu said that he could not comment.

@nicholashellen