We are asking the Vice-Chancellor of Lancaster University to revoke historian and television presenter David Starkey's honorary degree in light of his racist comments.

Speaking about the Black Lives Matter movement in July 2020, David Starkey said: “Slavery was not genocide, otherwise there wouldn’t be so many damn blacks in Africa or in Britain would there?”

This is not the first time David Starkey has made racist comments. In 2011, on BBC Newsnight, he said that the London riots occurred because “the whites have become black.” And in 2012, he said that members of the Rochdale sex grooming gang had values which were “entrenched in the foothills of the Punjab or wherever it is.”

In 2004, David Starkey was awarded an honorary degree by Lancaster University. In light of his litany of racist comments, we believe that the University ought to revoke his honorary degree. We shouldn't honour David Starkey.