Police launch investigation into Darren Grimes’ controversial David Starkey interview

Mr Grimes says the police probe has ‘serious repercussions for freedom of expression’

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 Brexit campaigner Darren Grimes faces police investigation over the controversial interview published earlier this year  in which historian David Starkey denied slavery was genocide because “so many damn blacks” survived. 

In a statement, Metropolitan Police confirmed that “on 4 July, the Metropolitan Police Service was passed an allegation from Durham Police of a public order offence relating to a social media video posted online on 30 June.

“The matter is currently being investigated.”

No arrests have been made, the force added.

Dr Starkey, who is best known for his programmes about Henry VIII, made the racist comment while discussing Black Lives Matter protests on Mr Grime’s Youtube channel, Reasoned UK. He said: “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 and again there's no point in arguing against globalisation or Western civilisation. They are all products of it, we are all products of it.”

In a statement to The Daily Telegraph, Mr Grimes said the police investigation had “serious repercussions for freedom of expression”.

He told the paper: “At a time when many in our country are facing uncertainty and financial hardship, I cannot imagine a more contemptible way for the Metropolitan Police to abuse taxpayers' money and the trust of citizens than by investigating this vexatious claim.”

After considerable backlash from the interview, Dr Starkey lost two university positions. He resigned from his honorary fellowship at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, and Canterbury Christ Church University terminated his role as visiting professor, labelling his comments “completely unacceptable".

He was also dropped by the publisher HarperCollins, who condemned the historian’s comments as  “abhorrent"  and pledged not to publish further books with him. 

Dr Starkey issued a lengthy apology in July, in which he said his “principal regret” was that his “blundering use of language” could threaten people's right to freedom of speech.

Speaking about his use of the phrase “so many damn blacks”, he said: “It was intended to emphasise, in hindsight with awful clumsiness, the numbers who survived the horrors of the slave trade.”

Instead, it came across as a term of racial abuse. This, in the present atmosphere, where passions are high and feelings raw, was deplorably inflammatory.”

Among those to criticise Dr Starkey's comments was former Chancellor Sajid Javid, who said his remarks were “a reminder of the appalling views that still exist”.

With additional reporting from AP