This is the moment comedian Nish Kumar publicly called out Dominic Raab on TV after the deputy prime minister apparently mixed him up with another “brown guy” on the set of a BBC show.
Mr Kumar said Mr Raab confused him with Gary Marlowe, the brother of anti-Brexit campaigner Gina Miller, when the trio were backstage at a Question Time in north London in 2018.
He has since told The Independent that he had “no confidence” Mr Raab could “differentiate between different Asians”.
Speaking on BBC 2’s satirical news show The Mash Report about the alleged incident, he said: “When I walked into the green room, and this is a true story, you were saying ‘Nice to meet you Nish!’ to a man who turned out to be Gina Miller’s brother.
“Even though the show tweeted photos of all of us the day before so we all know what each other looked like, you just ignored it and went up to the first brown guy you saw and assumed he was me. Even though he has no glasses and no beard!”
Ms Miller described the mix-up in an article for The Independent in which she also accused Mr Raab of being “aggressive and intimidating” when they were invited on the BBC Radio 4 Today show to debate Brexit in 2016.
She said that Mr Raab made the mix-up years later, when she appeared on the BBC panel show and took her brother along for support.
She wrote that Mr Raab arrived “and made a beeline to my brother – a serious looking, bespectacled, very short haired doctor – and said, “I am Dominic Raab, look forward to being on the panel with you tonight” with that grin he does. I looked up from the papers I was reviewing in preparation. My brother was taken aback and said, “do you think I’m Nish Kumar? We’re not all the same, you know?”
Mr Kumar said Mr Raab “did not even acknowledge that the infraction happened”.
“What annoyed me was that he had no contrition afterwards,” he said. “He just went up to the first brown guy he saw, was immediately corrected but did not even acknowledge that the infraction happened.
“I have to say I felt no confidence that he can differentiate between different Asians. But it left us both feeling a sense of disrespect and disregard for our identity.”
Mr Marlowe added: “He came up to me and said “Hi Nish” - even though I don’t look anything like him. I thought what an idiot. Just because we are both brown does not mean we’re interchangeable.
“I have a thick skin I have been beaten up by National Front thugs so this is small beer in comparison”.
Also appearing on the panel that night were journalist Piers Morgan and Labour MP Dawn Butler.
Meanwhile, describing the “abusive attack” in 2016, Ms Miller said Mr Raab “was aggressive and intimidating, and I was bullied and demeaned.”
“I can’t make up my mind if you’re naive, got too much money or just stupid,” she claimed he told her, in the first on-the-record claims against the deputy prime minister.
Mr Raab was also “furious” when she was told by a young man that a car was ready to pick her up, Ms Miller said, adding that he shouted at the man: “Go get me a f****** car.”
Mr Marlowe added: “He owes my sister an apology for what he said to her which was bullying and misogynistic. He’s a powerful personality and we felt the full brunt.”
A spokesperson for Mr Raab said: “Dominic firmly rejects the description and characterisation of him portrayed by Gina Miller. He always treats people with the utmost respect and has never sworn at staff.”
