Can a communist leopard change his spots?

The former chairman of the communist Equalities and Human Rights Commission has apparently had something of a change of heart.  It is reported that he is to present a television documentary about race issues, and this quote is from The Mail Online:

Mr Phillips, a Labour party member, says anti-racism began with good intentions but turned into 'thought control'. 

He says the London 2005 bombing by British Muslims, forced him to do rethink his views.

Now, he insists that only a willingness to talk more openly about race, despite risk of causing offence, will help those in need.

Mr Phillips has previously said that the Human Rights Act was widely abused by grandstanding lawyers (The Telegraph, 11 December 2011).  Some people predicted that before the law was even enacted.

Wikiquotes records him as saying that: Most liberal-minded folk would like to think that since they are not hostile to people of a different race, racism is a disease of the uneducated, unenlightened and socially backward - football hooligans, British National Party supporters, policemen.

I am not sure how Phillips defines the word racism, but he certainly seems to have no trouble in using it to define supporters of the British National Party.  Perhaps he could explain in what sense this is not hate speech.  Wikiquotes also records him as using the words less than human, which also strikes me as hate speech - but what else should we expect from a communist trouble maker?

I do not plan to watch the documentary when it is broadcast.  If Phillips has genuinely had a change of heart, then maybe he should explain his use of the word racism in the course of an open dialogue with a prominent member or former member of the British National Party - maybe Andrew Brons or Mark Collett or Paul Golding.

For the record, I have tackled the definition of racism in two previous posts, but in both cases I made use of definitions which were stated or implied by other people, and I tried to assess those definitions as fairly as possible.  I am not a communist, and I try to keep away from hypocrisy.

Relate previous posts include:

Are you a racist?
Racism at the movies