Racism of the 1970s and 1980s has returned to the streets of London, Cabinet minister Wes Streeting is warning.
The Health Secretary stressed he had thought that such abuse had been confined to the “history books”.
But the Ilford North Labour MP told of the racism now being suffered by youngster in the capital.
He emphasised that he was appalled that this was happening in “one of the most diverse cities on earth”.
Appearing on BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, he said: “On Friday afternoon I went to one of my local secondary schools listening to teenage boys, aged between - Year 7, so around 11, right up to the age of 18, describe their experiences of racism in our capital city, in one of the most diverse cities on earth.
“What they are describing, and what we have seen on our streets in recent weeks and months, is a return of 1970s, 1980s style racism that I thought we had left in the history books.”
He stressed: “The only way we are going to defeat this racism is to call it out and confront it for what it is and for the decent majority of this country to stand against it, as we have always done.”
Mr Streeting also branded a “disgrace” and “racist” comments by Reform UK MP Sarah Pochin who said “it drives me mad when I see adverts full of black people, full of Asian people”.
Runcorn and Helsby MP Ms Pochin said her comments were “phrased poorly” and apologised for any offence caused.
But Mr Streeting slammed her, arguing: “She’s only sorry that she’s been caught and called out.
“What she said was a disgrace. I think it was racist and the deafening silence from her party leader (Nigel Farage) says it all.”
Ms Pochin, who has called for the burka to be banned in public, was responding to a viewer on TalkTV who complained about the demographics of advertising.
The MP said the viewer was “absolutely right” and “it drives me mad when I see adverts full of black people, full of Asian people”.
She said: “It doesn’t reflect our society and I feel that your average white person, average white family is ... not represented any more.”
Ms Pochin blamed the situation on the “woke liberati” in the “arty-farty world”.
“It might be fine inside the M25, but it’s definitely not representative of the rest of the country,” she added.
In a later statement, she said she was trying to say the advertising industry had gone “DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) mad”.
But shadow home secretary Chris Philp told LBC the way Ms Pochin made her comments was “racist”.
The Conservative MP for Croydon South said: “She should absolutely not have said that.
“It was completely wrong.
“She has apologised. I think the way she put it was racist.”
Zia Yusuf, head of policy for Reform UK, told Sky News it was right Ms Pochin had apologised, but he added that people must be able to “talk about” representation on television advertising”.
He urged viewers to “listen to the whole thing” and said the TalkTV caller had been “rightfully upset about the massive under representation of some groups in television advertising, and significant over representation of others”.
Mr Yusuf quit as Reform UK chairman in June after branding Ms Pochin’s call for the burka to be banned as “dumb” but returned within days to a key role in the party.
