Rupa Huq MP apologises for 'superficially' black remark

Rupa Huq has been suspended as a Labour MP

MP Rupa Huq says she has apologised to Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng for describing him as "superficially" black.

Speaking at a Labour Party conference fringe event, Ms Huq also said: "If you hear him on the Today programme, you wouldn't know he's black."

She has been suspended from sitting as a Labour MP, pending an investigation.

Leader Sir Keir Starmer called the remarks "racist" and said he taken "swift action".

He declined to comment on whether she should be sacked from the party, saying its investigation should now "take its course".

Speaking to BBC Breakfast, he added: "It's not for me to tell that independent process what they should do."

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The Ealing Central and Acton MP, who will now sit in Parliament as an independent, was recorded making the comments on Monday evening at a fringe event entitled What's Next for Labour's Agenda on Race.

The audio clip was published by the Guido Fawkes website minutes before Sir Keir Starmer began his speech to the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool.

During a Q&A session, she said: "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.

"If you hear him on the Today programme you wouldn't know he's black."

Following the publication of the clip on Tuesday, Ms 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."

Tory Party chair Jake Berry called her comments "racist" and "disgusting".

Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner said the remarks were "unacceptable," while the party's foreign affairs spokesman David Lammy described the remarks as "unfortunate" adding: "I wouldn't have made them myself."

Kwasi Kwarteng became the first black Conservative cabinet minister in 2021, when he was given the job of business secretary

Mr Kwarteng, who became chancellor earlier this month, was born in east London and has Ghanaian heritage.

Former chancellor and Tory MP Sajid Javid said he was "appalled and saddened" by the clip adding: "Rather than give encouragement to racists and people who seek to divide us, she should know better. Not too late for her to show that she does."

In a letter to Sir Keir, Mr Berry urged the Labour leader to "join me in unequivocally condemning these comments as nothing less than racist".

The Conservative Party chair also labelled her words as "vile" and "disgusting".

Sunder Katwala, who chaired the event at which Ms Huq made the remarks, tweeted: "My comments from the chair that people should be judged on their politics and ideas, not race, and that Kwarteng being a Conservative did not mean he was not Black, were strongly applauded by the fringe audience."