A new front has emerged in the culture war as Kemi Badenoch, the equalities minister, condemned an academic study an MP described as “woke archaeology” that examined whether ethnicity was a risk factor with medieval plague.
Badenoch said the research into 14th-century London risked damaging trust in modern health services and that she had written to the Museum of London, where the lead author of the study in question works.
During equalities questions in the Commons, Philip Hollobone, a Conservative MP cited the study, asking Badenoch, who is also business secretary, to “ensure that such sensationalist research findings and woke archaeology have no impact at all on current health and pandemic policy”.
“I do agree,” Badenoch replied. “I am not even sure whether we can call it just sensationalist or woke.”
She added: “I agree with my honourable friend that this type of research is damaging to trust, to social cohesion and even to trust in health services. I have written to the director of the Museum of London to express my concern.”
It was the first recorded use of the term “woke archaeology” in more than 200 years of Commons transcripts.
The paper, published in the journal Bioarchaeology International, examined the remains of 145 people buried at London plague cemeteries, 49 of whom died from the plague.
By examining five features of the skulls and comparing these with a forensic databank covering modern and historical global populations, it estimated the likely heritage of people who died and found that those of African heritage were disproportionately more likely to have died from plague than people of European or Asian ancestry, compared with non-plague deaths.
While stressing the need for caution given the sample size, the authors said the results suggested there was value in considering structural racism in such research, likening this to the higher death rates for people from some minority ethnic groups during Covid.
In the Commons, Badenoch said the study “apparently was based on phrenology” – a long-discredited topic which sought to determine people’s characters by examining bumps on their skull – which is not the case.
Badenoch’s letter to the Museum of London’s director complained that the sample size did not “warrant such a definitive conclusion being propagated”, and said the idea of structural racism being a factor in health outcomes, which she has previously rejected, could be damaging even 700 years later.
“This government has done a significant amount of work to reduce levels of fear and anxiety among ethnic minority communities around health,” she said.
“It is imperative that ethnic minorities feel able to trust our healthcare institutions, and that they are given accurate information about health outcomes based on robust evidence. It is also important that evidence – be it historical or current – is not presented in a way that is misleading or that implies that the information is reliable when it is not.
“This is so that we don’t undermine the trust and confidence ethnic minorities have in accessing the healthcare they need. It is also so that we don’t promote a culture of fear and conspiracy theory around causes for disparities in health outcomes.”
A spokesperson for the museum said: “I can confirm that the museum received a letter from the minister regarding the research and we have responded to her directly.”
