UK Member of Parliament Rupa Huq is facing backlash after describing the first Black Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng as being “superficially” Black.
At a conference for her political party last month, the politician said: “If you hear him on the Today programme, you wouldn’t know he’s black.”
She continued: “He’s superficially, he’s, a black man but again he’s got more in common… he went to Eton, he went to a very expensive prep school, all the way through top schools in the country.”
After the clip went viral online, Huq tweeted: “I have today contacted Kwasi Kwarteng to offer my sincere and heartfelt apologies for the comments I made at yesterday’s Labour conference fringe meeting. My comments were ill-judged and I wholeheartedly apologise to anyone affected.”
Her remarks led to her suspension from sitting as a Labour MP. An investigation is pending.
An outcry ensued including that of Leader Sir Keir Starmer who called her comments “racist.” He said he would take “swift action” to condemn her for her remarks.
Huq has yet to comment on the matter but Sir Starmer stated that the investigation into her remarks would “take its course.” He added that “it’s not for me to tell that independent process what they should do.”
It is unclear whether she will be fired from her position.
Kwasi Kwarteng is a British Conservative Party politician born to Ghanaian parents and has been a Member of Parliament since 2010. Before being fired from his post as Chancellor of the Exchequer under the short-lived Liz Truss government, he was Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy from 2021 to 2022. He was appointed Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Exiting the European Union before becoming a Secretary of State. He officially resigned on October 14, 2022.
