Labour MP suspended after describing Kwarteng as “superficially” Black

Labour MP Rupa Huq has been administratively suspended from the party after she described Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng as “superficially” Black during a Labour conference fringe event.

The MP for Ealing Central and Acton told the event: “Superficially, he is a Black man. He went to Eton, I think, he went to a very expensive prep school, all the way through, the top schools in the country. If you hear him on the Today programme, you wouldn’t know he is Black.”

Huq said in a tweet that she had contacted Kwarteng today to offer her “sincere and heartfelt apologies for the comments”. She added: “My comments were ill-judged, and I wholeheartedly apologise to anyone affected.”

Angela Rayner told BBC News she condemned Huq’s comments and said the MP should apologise, adding: “For me, those comments are completely unacceptable.”

“Rupa needs to reflect on what she said and she needs to take immediate action. As I’ve said previously, when people when they’ve made mistakes and they’ve said something that is completely inappropriate – recognise that and make sure that you publicly acknowledge that and apologise,” the Labour deputy leader said.

Tory Party chair Jake Berry wrote to Keir Starmer about the incident, telling the Labour leader: “I trust you will join me in unequivocally condemning these comments as nothing less than racist and that the Labour whip will be withdrawn from Rupa Huq as a consequence.”

Commenting on Huq’s remarks, Labour’s national campaign coordinator Shabana Mahmood told Times Radio this afternoon that they were “bang out of order” and “completely disgraceful and unacceptable”. She told listeners that the party had “acted completely appropriately in line with our processes” in suspending the whip.

“I don’t think it’s acceptable to look at somebody and just because they’re Black assume that they have a certain set of political positions and if they don’t have those political positions, that somehow means they’re not Black enough, or in my case that I wouldn’t be Asian enough,” Mahmood said.