Tory MP Ben Bradley has admonished “woke” commentators who harp on the subject of “white male privilege” by inviting them to speak to white working-class men whose lives have been far from easy.

“We’re missing a trick if we’re not focusing on ensuring all children get access to a good education and to life’s opportunities,” began the Mansfield MP, speaking during a parliamentary discussion excerpted by the Blue Collar Conservatism group.

“That means we can’t continue to not talk about the plight of disadvantaged white boys who are consistently bottom of the pile,” he said.

“We hear a lot in the media and in this place about ‘white male privilege’ — it seems to overtake discussion a lot,” he added.

“I would challenge those people to come to my community where men spent their whole lives digging coal underground to keep your lights on, and who are now dying early of lung disease as a result, to talk to them about their privilege.

“It’s their children and their grandchildren that I am talking about today who need help, and our communities need help.”

“Unlesss we grapple with the burning injustice that’s facing these white working-class boys in communities like mine in Mansfield we’re not going to be delivering the change that’s needed,” he concluded.

Ben Bradley may have been encouraged to make his views on the issue known after actor Laurence Fox recently hit back at a woman who tried to discredit his opinion by calling him a “white privileged male” on BBC Question Time — an incident many believe has helped to shift the Overton window on the subject.

📽️ "Talk to the blokes who spent their whole lives digging coal to keep your lights on about white male privilege" Important debate led by @BBradley_Mans. New figures show that white boys from disadvantaged backgrounds underperform against all races & ethnicities of other boys👇 pic.twitter.com/l9CTPPTVrF — Blue Collar Conservatism (@bluecollartory_) February 12, 2020

It is true that white working-class boys have, statistically, poorer life chances than any ethnic minority in the United Kingdom.

However, the s0-called “positive action” provisions in Britain’s equality legislation, which are supposed to increase “representation” for disadvantaged groups by providing them with training workshops and internships which are not opened to supposedly non-disadvantaged groups, are generally shut to the white working-class, and in particular to white working-class males.

Indeed, publicly-owned institutions such as the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and Channel 4 often run advertisements for Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) only internships which pay more than a full-time job on the minimum wage, which, for example, a privately-educated black stockbroker’s son would be eligible for — while a white miner’s son would be shown the door.

Even private initiatives to help the white working class are often scuppered, with two prestigious private schools recently refusing money to pay for scholarships for white working-class boys.

Meanwhile, money to pay for scholarships for black people at the University of Cambridge from grime rapper Michael Ebenazer Kwadjo Omari Owuo Jr. — stage name “Stormzy” — has been enthusiastically accepted.

White Candidates Banned from Applying for Job at BBC, Where Ethnic Minorities Already Over-Represented https://t.co/EZ09LlB37r — Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) November 22, 2017

Follow Jack Montgomery on Twitter: @JackBMontgomery