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27th Sep 2022

Labour MP Rupa Huq suspended from party for calling Kwasi Kwarteng ‘superficially’ black

Steve Hopkins

Huq is accused of making ‘racist’ remarks at a Labour conference fringe event on Monday

MP Rupa Huq has reportedly been administratively suspended from the Labour Party pending an investigation.

The MP for Ealing Central and Acton is accused of making “racist” comments about Chancellor Kwasi Kwartengat a Labour conference fringe event on Monday entitled “What’s Next for Labour’s Agenda on Race?”

The Conservative Party chairman condemned Huq’s “vile” comments and urged Labour Leader, Sir Keir Starmer, to remove the whip from her.

In audio posted online by the Guido Fawkes website, Huq says: “Superficially he is a black man.

“He went to Eton, I think, he went to a very expensive prep school, all the way through, the top schools in the country.

“If you hear him on the Today programme, you wouldn’t know he is black.”

In a letter to Sir Keir on Tuesday, Jake Berry, the Tory chairman, said he must take action against Huq.

“During an event organised by the British Future and Black Equity Organisation and attended by shadow secretary of state for women and equalities Anneliese Dodds, Rupa Huq made a number of racist comments about the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Kwasi Kwarteng.”

He continued: “Sunder Katwala, the event chair, was forced to respond to her appalling comments about the chancellor by saying his Conservative views ‘doesn’t make him not black… and I think the Labour Party has to be really careful’. “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will join me in unequivocally condemning these comments as nothing less than racist and that the Labour whip will be withdrawn from Rupa Huq as a consequence.”

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