A Labour MP has said she was “not surprised” that BBC Parliament mistook her for another black female Labour MP as she debated in the House of Commons.
Florence Eshalomi was mistakenly captioned as her colleague Shadow Exchequer Secretary Abena Oppong-Asare - the MP for Erith and Thamesmead. The BBC has apologised privately to the Labour MP for Vauxhall by email.
It came after the Shadow Minister tweeted photos of the blunder adding: “it’s Florence Eshalomi here” complete with some hand-waving emojis.
Ms Eshalomi told the Standard: “If I’m honest I’m not surprised. Just a bit disappointed as it has happened before. {The BBC] emailed their apologies but I wonder why they keep mistaking me for other colleagues?”
She added: “I don’t even think Abena was on the estate today.”
@BBCParliament it’s Florence Eshalomi here 👋🏾👋🏾👋🏾 🙃🙃🙃 pic.twitter.com/8Kkw6oI364
— Florence Eshalomi MP (@FloEshalomi) March 14, 2023
A BBC spokesperson said: “We apologise unreservedly for this error. We took immediate action and the error has been corrected for any future use. We are taking measures to ensure this does not happen again. We have apologised to both MPs.”
It is not the first time such a mistake has occurred. The MP also tweeted BBC Parliament in 2020 pointing out she had been confused for fellow Labour member for Coventry North West, Taiwo Owatemi, during a Budget debate.
BBC Parliament replied to her apologising for the mistake and explaining it had been made due to an incorrect name on Parliament TV – the House of Commons streaming service.
The latest blunder came months after The Mirror confused then chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng with Bernard Mensah, the president of international for Bank of America on the first day of Black History Month.
That isn’t me… @DailyMirror pic.twitter.com/rcxn4VjoNW
— Kwasi Kwarteng (@KwasiKwarteng) October 1, 2022
Condemning the “terrible error”, the publication said the next day: “This morning a picture in a story about Kwasi Kwarteng was wrongly captioned on the Mirror website. This was a terrible error and we apologise to Mr Kwarteng and all our readers.”
