RACE STORM
Labour MP Rupa Huq SUSPENDED for making ‘racist comments’ about Kwasi Kwarteng
A LABOUR MP has been suspended from the party after making "racist comments" about Kwasi Kwarteng.
Rupa Huq bizarrely described the Chancellor as only being “superficially black” at a party conference panel event yesterday called “what’s next for Labour’s Agenda on Race?”
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Labour took the action just hours after her comments - and Ms Huq went on to make a grovelling apology.
She said last night: "I have today contacted Kwasi Kwarteng to offer my sincere and heartfelt apologies for the comments I made at yesterday’s Labour conference fringe meeting. My comments were ill-judged and I wholeheartedly apologise to anyone affected."
Mr Kwarteng is the UK’s first black Chancellor.
He was born in Ghana to Ghanaian parents and moved to Britain aged 13 after winning a prestigious scholarship to Eton College.
In a bombshell leaked audio recording of the event, Ms Huq is heard saying: “Superficially (Mr Kwarteng) is a black man….if you hear him on the Today programme, you wouldn’t know he’s black.”
The MP shockingly went on to refer to former Chancellor Rishi Sunak as a "little brown guy".
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She also accused Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch and Home Secretary Suella Braverman of having been "superficial" candidates in the Tory leadership contest this year.
Ms Huq said: "Ok, superficially they’ve had four brown Chancellors and that.
"But when you have a little brown guy who.... and also the leadership contest I think that I’d say alludes to that. When there was say Suella Braverman, Kemi Badenoch, all these people in it superficially ‘oh look it’s a multicultural leadership race’."
Labour Chairwoman and Shadow Equalities Secretary Anneliese Dodds was also on the panel, which was hosted by the migration think tank British Future.
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Tory Chairman Jake Berry wrote to Sir Keir Starmer earlier today, calling for Ms Huq to have the whip removed.
The letter dropped within hours of the Labour leader delivering his keynote conference speech, where he tried to convince the country his party is fit to rule.
The whip was removed from Ms Huq and her party membership was suspended when Sir Keir finished speaking.
Mr Berry said: “I trust you will join me in unequivocally condemning these comments as nothing less than racist and that the Labour whip will be withdrawn from Rupa Huq as a consequence”.
Samuel Kasumu, a former Downing Street advisor, blasted Ms Huq for trying to put ethnic minority people into boxes.
He told The Sun: "I was extremely disturbed to hear the words of Rupa Huq at a recent Labour fringe.
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"If she believes that black people cannot go to good schools or that being well spoken is a denial of a black person’s heritage then I am afraid she is the person that needs to check her own biases and privileges."
A Labour spokesperson said Ms Huq's comments were "clearly totally inappropriate".