NEIL Oliver has declared his “love” for a historian repeatedly accused of racism.
The National Trust for Scotland president also liked a social media post which seemed to criticise the Black Lives Matter movement.
Historian David Starkey, who has faced multiple allegations of discrimination in recent years, has caused outrage today after claiming that slavery cannot be considered genocide because "so many damn blacks survived".
He made the comments in an interview with Reasoned, a media organisation fronted by former Brexit campaigner Darren Grimes. Responding to a post from Grimes promoting the interview with Starkey on Monday, Oliver posted: “Tell him I love him, by all means.”
In the interview, a video of which was published on YouTube today, Starkey said: “Slavery was not genocide otherwise there wouldn't be so many damn blacks in Africa or Britain would there? An awful lot of them survived."
He added: "The honest teaching of the British empire is to say it was the first key stage of world globalisation. It was probably the most important moment in human history and it is still with us. Its consequences are still [felt] and generally speaking in most ways actually fruitful.
"The idea that slavery ... is this kind of terrible disease and we dare not speak its name, it only dare not speak its name [sic] because we settled it nearly 200 years ago."
The comments were widely condemned. Tory MP Sajid Javid tweeted: “We are the most successful multi-racial democracy in the world and have much to be proud of. But David Starkey's racist comments (‘so many damn blacks’) are a reminder of the appalling views that still exist.”
We are the most successful multi-racial democracy in the world and have much to be proud of. But David Starkey's racist comments ("so many damn blacks") are a reminder of the appalling views that still exist.
— Sajid Javid (@sajidjavid) July 2, 2020
Oliver sparked anger last month after claiming the removal of slave trader Edward Colston’s statue in Bristol was the first step to the reintroduction of the guillotine.
He told talkRADIO: “I find it very concerning that this kind of behaviour is a step on the road that leads to mob rule, to the guillotine, who are these self-appointed people who believe that they’re able to make these value judgements and I think that’s a very dangerous precedent.”
READ MORE: Neil Oliver claims removing racist statues is 'road to the guillotine'
The NTS president has now liked a tweet, posted yesterday, which praised a member of a sporting team for seemingly not “taking a knee”, a pose which has become synonymous with the anti-racism Black Lives Matter movement.
Starkey, well known for his role in historical TV programmes, has been criticised repeatedly in recent years for discriminatory remarks.
In 2011, he was rebuked after speaking about rioting in the UK during on Newsnight.
He said: "It was not inter-community violence ... The whites have become black. A particular sort of violent, destructive, nihilistic, gangster culture has become the fashion.
"And black and white, boy and girl, operate in this language together, this language which is wholly false, which is this Jamaican patois that’s been intruded in England, and this is why so many of us have this sense of literally a foreign country."
In 2015, Cambridge University was forced to take down an online fundraising video fronted by Starkey after staff and students claimed he had been “aggressively racist”.
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