The Labour MP for Ealing Central and Acton, Dr Rupa Huq has this afternoon been suspended from the parliamentary labour party after she was recorded calling the new Chancellor of the Exchequer, Kwarsi Kwarteng, ‘superficially black’.
Amongst other comments Dr Huq is reported to have told delegates about the Chancellor, that ‘if you hear him on the Today programme, you wouldn’t know he’s black’. Mr Huq made her comments when speaking to a Labour party fringe meeting in Liverpool entitled ‘What’s Next for Labour’s Agenday on Race’.
Kwarsi Kwarteng, a child of Ghanian descent, was born in East London.
According to the Conservative Party Chairman, Jake Berry, Dr Huq is also said to have referenced how the Conservative party had ‘superficially had four brown Chancellors and that’.
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In a letter he sent to Sir Keir starmer earlier today, Mr Berry expressed his views and demanded that Dr Huq be stripped from the Labour whip at Westminster. This is what has happened.
Speaking on the BBC Radio 4 ‘PM’ programme this afternoon, the former Labour leader Ed Miliband, described Dr Huq’s remarks as ‘really awful comments’.
Dr Huq’s comments generated a response at the fringe meeting itself where Sunder Katwala, the Chair of the event is reported to have said that Chancellor’s Conservative views don’t ‘make him not black’ and that the ‘Labour Party has to be really careful’.
Commenting on Twitter this afternoon, Rupa Huq said, “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”.
Rupa Huq studied at Cambridge and then completed a PhD at East London University. Her sister is Konnie Huq, a former Blue Peter presenter.
She will now be an independent at Westminster.
