A LABOUR MP has been administratively suspended from the party pending an investigation after she described Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng as "superficially black".
Rupa Huq, MP for Ealing Central and Acton, made the remarks about Kwarteng at a Labour conference fringe event on Monday entitled "What's Next for Labour's Agenda on Race?"
In audio published online, Huq can be heard discussing his elite school background, before adding that “you wouldn’t know he is black” when listening to him on the radio.
Earlier this month, Kwarteng became Britain’s first black Chancellor.
Huq has now offered her "sincere and heartfelt apologies" to Kwarteng for her "ill-judged" comments.
Tory party chair Jake Berry raised “serious concerns” in a letter to Starmer, with the audio being published by the Guido Fawkes website shortly before his conference speech.
Keir Starmer must act over Rupa Huq’s digusting comments at #LPC22 about the Chancellor. “Superficially he is a black man” because he’s Conservative is a vile thing to say. pic.twitter.com/DtVwYSNN6N
— Jake Berry MP (@JakeBerry) September 27, 2022
“I trust you will join me in unequivocally condemning these comments as nothing less than racist and that the Labour whip be withdrawn from Rupa Huq as a consequence,” he wrote.
Huq was said to be sitting next to Labour chair Anneliese Dodds when she made the remarks.
In the audio, Huq could be heard saying: “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.”
Berry said that Sunder Katwala, who was chairing the event for the British Future and Black Equity organisations, was forced to challenge her remarks.
According to the Tory MP, Katwala said that the Chancellor’s Conservative views “doesn’t make him not black … and I think the Labour Party has to be really careful”.
Huq and the Labour Party have been approached for comment.
