Content note: This article contains detailed description of the use of racist language

Former Honorary Fellow of Fitzwilliam College, David Starkey was under investigation by the Metropolitan Police for racist comments made in an interview with Reasoned in late June.

The investigation into the behaviour of  Starkey and the Reasoned interviewer, Darren Grimes, commenced on September 25th following reports of a “public order offence relating to a social media video posted on June 30[th]” to Durham Constabulary.

According to Grimes, a “senior officer [had] been appointed to conduct a review into the investigation to ensure that it is ‘proportionate,’” and the investigation was put on hold on September 28th and called off earlier today (21/10).

The inquiry had received criticism from several high-profile political figures on the grounds that it was a threat to freedom of speech, among the critics being the former Home Secretary, Sajid Javid.

Javid, in response to the investigation of both Starkey and Grimes, tweeted that: “David Starkey’s comments were appalling. But, the idea that it’s appropriate to go after journalists for the remarks of their interviewees is plainly absurd.”

The Free Speech Union, which according to its website aims to enforce and defend its members’ rights to free speech, also criticised the proceedings as “absurd” in their statement. They responded to the cancellation of the investigation via Twitter, adding more broadly that “the police and the CPS need to stop abusing the law to try and regulate speech and debate.”

Starkey was widely condemned for his “racist” comments made in the Reasoned interview, including Starkey arguing that“slavery was not genocide, otherwise there wouldn’t be so many damn blacks in Africa or in Britain would there?” He also stated that “slavery was not the same as the Holocaust” and dismissed the Black Lives Matter movement as one of “violence and victimhood.”

The investigation into Starkey intended to establish whether the Historian had breached the 1986 Public Order Act through the racist comments he made. The Act penalises the use of “threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour,” alongside any action that may “stir up racial hatred.”

After the investigation was initiated, the academic released a statement, saying the comments were “a serious error for which I have already paid a significant price” while also stressing that he “did not” intend “to stir up racial hatred.” Part of this “price” included Starkey resigning his Honorary Fellowship at Fitzwilliam College in July.

The College at the time detailed in a statement that Starkey’s “recent comments on slavery are indefensible.” The Cambridge BME Campaign meanwhile supported the actions taken by Fitzwilliam, and referred to Starkey as a “white supremacist.”

Starkey’s apology in June faced criticism, after he claimed to have already been reprimanded for his comments “with the loss of every distinction and honour [he had] acquired in a long career.” Dr Nicholas Guyatt from Jesus College stated that the apology was “almost as bad as his original remarks.”

Fitzwilliam College, in response to the investigations’ recent developments, told Varsity that the college was “founded upon the values of fairness and mutual respect.” A spokesperson for the College highlighted their “Equality and Diversity committee”, established in March 2020, as evidence for this, as well as the College introducing “anti-racism training” for all freshers.

However, the College was criticised in July for not taking quick enough action against Starkey: Fitzwilliam’s JCR Committee called on the College to apologise for not removing Starkey from his role earlier, accusing the College of “nearly a decade of inaction”.

Starkey’s comments in June were not the first that had encouraged students and staff to call for the removal of his honorary title; in August 2011, during the London Riots, he stated on Newsnight that “whites have become black. A particular sort of violent, destructive, nihilistic gangstar culture has become the fashion.”

The comments were condemned by then Labour leader Ed Miliband and led to student campaigns to revoke Starkey’s fellowship. At the time the University refused to comment on Starkey’s interview, stating that to do so would be “inappropriate”.

Cambridge BME Campaign, told Varsity in July, that in not revoking Starkey’s fellowship in 2011 Fitzwilliam College “made a choice to prioritise its relations with a high-profile figure over the wellbeing and welfare of its BME students and staff.”