A TORY minister suggested on Tuesday that the mother of a 12-year-old boy arrested by armed officers over a toy gun was overreacting when she expressed fear for her children’s lives.

Mina Agyepong said that she “honestly believed” officers could have shot her daughters during a raid on their north London home at 11pm on July 17.

Her son Kai was handcuffed and restrained after 10 armed officers were sent to the house after a passerby reported seeing a “black male holding a firearm on the sofa.”

Kai was released after a lead pellet gun, which had been fitted with a blue slider to distinguish it from the real thing, had been retrieved.  

In an interview on Radio 4, Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch claimed that Ms Agyepong’s comments were “inflaming tensions.”

She said: “I don’t think we should be using this sort of language where people feel unarmed police officers try to kill people on the streets.

“We’re hearing a lot of this rhetoric that is simply not true.”

However, when told by the presenter that the police were armed, she replied: “Oh right, I wasn’t aware of that.”

Ms Badenoch added: “It’s not for me to challenge operational policing based on one story in the media.”

She also disagreed with comments by the outgoing chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission that the government was “dragging its feet” on tackling racism. 

David Isaac told the BBC: “They seek to understand [racism] but are they taking action and is this a top priority? I don't believe so.”

The minister said that the government had implemented 16 of the recommendations made by the Lammy review of how the justice system treats BAME people.