The government's equalities minister has said higher rates of Covid-19 deaths in the Charedi community are due to “cultural factors”.

Kemi Badenoch, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Equalities, made her comments in response to Labour MP Diane Abbott, who raised concerns over infections in Orthodox communities.

Ms Badenoch referenced recent research from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine which estimated nearly 65 percent of the Orthodox Jewish community may have had Covid-19 in 2020.

She told the House of Commons yesterday: “The researchers said the reasons behind this high rate of infection are not yet known.

"Strictly Orthodox families have significantly larger households than the UK average. They also live in areas of increased population density and, in pre-pandemic times, had regular attendance at communal events and gatherings.

“The reason why I use them as an example is that this is why it’s wrong for us to mix together lots of different groups.

“The Orthodox Jewish community has been more impacted than many of the ethnic minority groups that get a lot of the attention in the press, but we don’t say this is due to structural antisemitism.

“We look at what the underlying factors are. Multigenerational households, for instance, are not due to racism but often due to cultural factors."

Ms Abbott, the MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, had accused the Tory minister of being “insistent” that disproportionate rates of infections and death amongst black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities has “nothing to do” with being from that background.

She added that BAME groups are “more likely to be in overcrowded, poor housing conditions” which makes them vulnerable to Covid.

“These things aren’t random, they’re to do with race and ethnicity”,  said Ms Abbott.

The former Labour shadow home secretary also pressed the Government to ensure ethnicity is included on death certificates, asking for information on the Charedi communities, noting they had experienced higher levels of Covid deaths in the US.

Ms Badenoch responded saying recording ethnicity data on death certificates is “not something that can be done overnight, it will probably require legislation”.