Welcome to The Spectator podcast. I'm Isabel Hardman. On this week's episode, we'll be asking whether Theresa May is jumping on a bandwagon by playing the so-called race card. We'll also be looking at coalitions within our political parties which are being stretched at breaking point and considering whether doping is the real lifeblood of professional sport. First up, next month, Theresa May is expected to release the results of a race

audit which has investigated racial disparities in public services. Following hot on the heels of

David Lammy's review into the criminal justice system's relationship with race, whispers are

already abounding that it is being

lined up by the Tories as a game changer in terms of their outreach to BAME communities.

This is pure cynicism, writes Minera Mirza in this week's magazine cover story. And she joins me now to

discuss the reality of the situation, along with Richard Garsideide, Director of the Centre for Crime and Justice

Studies. So what's in this report that's due to be released in the next month, and why is it

important? Well, the speculation is that the government has produced a major review of all the

data that it has about race and racial disparities in the UK. Apparently, a lot of it is stuff that's been seen before.

There might be some new evidence put together, but the indications are that they want to go big on

some announcement and essentially paint a picture of Britain's being an incredibly racist society,

particularly in the public services. And from all the evidence I've seen and looked out over the years, and I've done

academic research on this, I've worked in London government, I think that most of the research

that's publicised around this area is dubious. And there isn't, there fundamentally is a

dishonesty, I think, in the political sphere about the issue of race. And there is a tendency for a lot

of people in politics across the spectrum to exaggerate the racism, the experience of racism

in the system, in the institutional systems. What in particular about the evidence, the research

is actually dubious? What are the findings that

you've found are quite questionable when you look into them? Well, I think, for example, the report

that was issued last week by David Lammy, it was his review commissioned by government into the

criminal justice system. And actually the facts that the report reveals suggest that there aren't disproportionate outcomes for ethnic minorities.

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