The brother of Stephen Lawrence, the black teenager murdered by racists, has accused the UK’s prime minister of having a “race problem”. Stuart Lawrence, 43, told the Guardian that Boris Johnson’s racially offensive statements in the past undermined his credibility to heal Britain’s racial divide. “I think it is quite evident from his track record he has a problem with race,” Lawrence said. Stephen’s murder in April 1993 when he was 18 years old, and the failings afterwards that left the killers free for so long, were landmark events in British race relations and policing. Stuart Lawrence said of Johnson: “He needs to show true leadership. He is showing the flaws of the establishment that is ruling today. “The language he is using such as ‘victimisation’ is inappropriate. It speaks to the rhetoric that we have chips on our shoulders. The only thing the world owes us is equal rights.” The Lawrence family fought the establishment for years to get answers after a racist gang shouted abuse at Stephen near a bus stop in south-east London. They then surrounded him and stabbed him to death. Despite being told who most of the suspects were, the Metropolitan police bungled the case. The brutal killing in the United States of George Floyd by a white police officer has highlighted issues around racial justice. Following mass protests in the UK, Johnson promised a new commission into race but critics have said it is a delaying tactic and it is time to implement reforms demanded by a host of past racial justice reviews. Lawrence said: “We’ve had loads of commissions and reviews and the time for sitting in a room and talking about things has gone. It’s the time to stand up and be counted. He thinks ‘give it a bit of time and they’ll get it out of their system’.” Johnson has chosen his controversial top adviser Munira Mirza to set up the commission. She has been accused of being an unsuitable choice because she has attacked the idea of “institutional racism”. The official inquiry into the failings in the Lawrence case found they were in part caused by institutional racism. Stuart Lawrence said it was still an issue for the police: “One hundred per cent there are still elements of institutional racism.” He revealed he wanted a face-to-face meeting with the PM to discuss his plans: “I’m planning to write to him myself. I want to sit down and talk, and know what he is doing. He risks alienating people. Now is the time to bring people together.” Lawrence said Canada’s Justin Trudeau had shown the type of leadership the UK needs on the issues of racial justice that have dominated debate in the past fortnight. In August, Neil Basu, one of Britain’s most senior police officers, commented on Johnson’s race record and history of offensive remarks, saying someone with his views could not join the police. Johnson has said women who wore the burqa resembled “letterboxes” and used the racist term “piccaninnies”. Asked if he would allow someone to join the police if they had used such language, Basu said: “No, they wouldn’t be recruited into policing.” Last week Stuart’s father, Neville Lawrence, told the Guardian that black people were still treated as second-class citizens in Britain. In 2012 David Norris and Gary Dobson, two of the gang that murdered Stephen, were finally convicted.