Communities secratary John Denham leaves Downing Street after the weekly cabinet meeting in London. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

From Alan Travis in The Guardian for 14 January 2010.

Leading equality campaigners and trade unionists said tonight there was still “some way to go” in tackling racial inequality after a speech by John Denham, the communities secretary, in which he insisted it was time to move on from the one-dimensional debate that assumes all minority ethnic people are disadvantaged.

In a landmark speech, Denham said substantial progress had been made on race equality since the Macpherson report 10 years ago and it was time for a more sophisticated approach that recognised that disadvantage was also tied up with class and poverty.

He also strenuously denied that a new duty on the public sector to tackle class inequalities would lead to work on combating racism dropping off the agenda.

Denham said it was important to recognise the importance of class and socio-economic status on people’s lives. The growing black and Asian middle class meant that many more people from minority ethnic backgrounds had a degree, a good job and their own home, while poor white working-class families faced serial disadvantages.

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