This archive report was first published on 5 July 2020.
July 5, 2020 - The comments from Professor David Starkey sparked widespread outrage and calls for his resignation.
Starkey, a renowned expert on Britain's Tudor period, made the remarks during an online interview with right-wing commentator Darren Grimes on June 30.
He claimed that slavery was not genocide, stating, 'Slavery was not genocide. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be so many damn blacks in Africa or in Britain, would there? An awful lot of them survived.'
Starkey's comments were met with fierce criticism, including from Sajid Javid, a former finance and interior minister who accused the historian of being racist.
Cambridge University's Fitzwilliam College accepted Starkey's resignation on July 2, while Canterbury Christ Church University in southeastern England also terminated his contract as a visiting professor.
HarperCollins UK condemned Starkey's views, stating, 'Our last book with the author was in 2010, and we will not be publishing further books with him.'
