Trevor Noah says he didn't call the "entire UK" racist after clarifying comments he made on The Daily Show.
Rishi Sunak was appointed as Britain's first Hindu Prime Minister earlier in the week following the resignation of Liz Truss. Following his appointment, a video was posted on Twitter from Noah's satirical news programme in which he said people were saying "now the Indians are going to take over Great Britain".
His comments resulted in a wave of backlash from senior British politicians, including former Cabinet minister Sajid Javid who called the comments "simply wrong". The comments also attracted the attention of Talk TV host Piers Morgan who criticised not just The Daily Show but other US media outlets for "falsely portraying Britain as a racist country".
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Responding to Morgan on Twitter, Noah said: “C’mon Piers you’re smarter than that. I wasn’t saying ‘The entire UK is racist’, I was responding to the racists who don’t want Rishi as PM because of his race.
“That’s why I said. ‘Some people’.”
In his monologue, titled “Unpacking the backlash against new UK PM Rishi Sunak”, he described seeing a “backlash” following Mr Sunak’s appointment.
“What I mean by that is this, you hear a lot of the people saying ‘Oh, they’re taking over, now the Indians are going to take over Great Britain and what’s next?’
“And I always find myself going ‘So what? What are you afraid of?’" He added: “I think it’s because the quiet part a lot of people don’t realise they are saying is ‘We don’t want these people who were previously oppressed to get into power because then they may do to us what we did to them.’”
Former chancellor and health secretary Mr Javid shared the clip and wrote: “Simply wrong. A narrative catered to his audience, at a cost of being completely detached from reality.
“Britain is the most successful multiracial democracy on earth and proud of this historic achievement.” When asked whether Mr Sunak believed Britain is a racist country, a Downing Street spokeswoman said: "No, he doesn't".
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