Labour MP Rupa Huq suspended for calling Kwarteng ‘superficially’ black

Rupa Huq has apologised for her “ill-judged” remarks after being suspended as a Labour MP for describing Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng as “superficially” black.

Speaking about Kwarteng during a Q&A session at a Labour Party conference fringe event on Monday, Huq 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”.

In an audio clip published by Guido Fawkes just minutes before Keir Starmer began his keynote speech yesterday, the Ealing Central and Acton MP added: “If you hear him on the Today programme, you wouldn’t know he’s black.”

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The chair of the Q&A session, British Future think-tank director Sunder Katwala, reportedly intervened to insist that Kwarteng’s views “don’t make him not black”.

Following calls for Huq to be suspended from Labour, Starmer described her remarks as “racist” and said he had taken “swift action”. Huq will now sit in Parliament as an independent, pending an investigation.

In a tweet yesterday, Huq said she had “contacted” Kwarteng “to offer my sincere and heartfelt apologies” for the “ill-judged” comments.

But the Daily Mail argued that “the mask has slipped again” and that “despite Sir Keir’s protestations, Labour has proved beyond doubt it truly is the nasty party”.

Conservative Party chair Jake Berry was among those who called for Huq to lose the Labour whip. In a letter to Starmer, he wrote: “I trust you will join me in unequivocally condemning these comments as nothing less than racist.”

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