COUNTDOWN ANNE’S RACIST INSULT TO ME
Radio star says Robinson made jibe during Weakest Link filming
VANESSA Feltz has accused Anne Robinson of making a “racist” jibe about her on Weakest Link.
She claims the new Countdown host’s barb about having “black boyfriends” was so “ill-judged” it had to be cut from the BBC show in 2006.
Vanessa said: “They did not use it. How could they? It was blatantly racist.”
VANESSA Feltz went on a celebrity Weakest Link in 2006 expecting an acid-tongued remark or two from Queen of Mean Anne Robinson.
But she claims the host went too far, passing comment on her relationship with Anglo-Nigerian singer Ben Ofoedu, who became Vanessa’s fiance that year.
She claims that during the quiz Anne asked her: “Vanessa Feltz, looking the way you do, how do you think you land all these big black boyfriends?”
Vanessa told the Mirror: “I said, ‘I don’t think you will use that in the show as it’s racist and also completely inaccurate and in every way unsuitable’.
“And they didn’t use it. I thought it was very ill-judged and they must have agreed as it wasn’t aired.”
But she claims she still found the comment upsetting. She said: “It was quite a startling thing to be told in the middle of a huge auditorium with a huge audience and lots of other contestants and a huge crew. It wasn’t a private, whispered remark in the toilet, it was part of an enormous television show.
“I didn’t raise it with anyone afterwards as I knew from my response that it couldn’t be used.”
Drag act Dave Lynn was also on the quiz show, and backs up Vanessa’s claims.
He said: “I was horrified actually at the time.
“I had met Vanessa quite a few times including on her chat show. I remember Anne saying it and I was quite shocked that she said it.
“We took a break and I said to Vanessa, ‘That was a bit odd. I thought it was a bit racist.’ I think she meant it as a joke, but it didn’t come over like that and Vanessa dealt with it very well.”
Vanessa, 58, who lives with 48-yearold
Ben in St John’s Wood, London, spoke of the alleged Weakest Link incident on her BBC Radio London Show.
She said: “I have never chosen or been chosen by a boyfriend because of their race or ethnicity. It is because I like them and they like me. That’s the only reason.”
She does not want Anne, 76, to be sacked as the host of Countdown.
She told the Mirror: “There is no question that some of the lines that she spoke when they were written for her, which they certainly did appear to be at the time, or whether she made them up, were deeply unkind and nasty.
“I think that was then and Countdown is now.
“I don’t think one should have an effect on the other if I am honest with you. It hasn’t ruined my life.”
But Weyman Bennett of Stand up to Racism said: “That is clear racism and I
am surprised people who are so highly intelligent come up with such rubbish. The phrase reaches back to an imperialist past that shouldn’t be celebrated.”
Anne was named the new host of Countdown on Monday by Channel 4, which has previously pledged a “new and clear commitment” to being an antiracist organisation.
She takes over from Nick Hewer, 77, who is standing down after 10 years, and will be the first female host.
After her new job was announced, Anne said: “I am beyond thrilled to be joining Countdown.”
A former contestant on Weakest Link this week also accused Anne of giving him a “public flogging” and mocking his sexuality when he appeared on the quiz.
Benjamin Butterworth filmed an appearance on the BBC show back in 2010, when he was just 18.
C4 declined to comment. Anne’s PA did not return requests for comment.
I thought it was very ill-judged and they must have agreed
VANESSA FELTZ ON WEAKEST LINK COMMENT
AMAZON’S UK sales rose 51% to almost £20billion in the pandemic, but agency workers brought in to deal with the demand say it was earned on the back of “slave labour”.
They were left struggling on effectively zero-hour contracts, with shifts dropped at the last minute and wages left unpaid.
Amazon used 25,000 seasonal workers in 2020, but the Mirror’s investigation with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and ITV News found it broke its own pledges on zero-hour contracts.
It claims not to use zero-hour contracts and that all its warehouse workers, including those employed through agencies, should be paid for at least 20 hours’ work a week, “even when 20 hours of work is not available”.
But we found agency workers on the equivalent of zero-hour contracts getting far fewer than the promised 20 hours. They told of shifts cancelled in the middle of the night, and being “ghosted” – never hearing from agencies again.
The Adecco and PMP Recruitment agencies asked them to sign contracts with no minimum hours or salary.
Nathan Bone, 25, from the Scottish
town of Ayr, worked in Amazon’s Motherwell warehouse in North Lanarkshire in November after the hotel he was furloughed from went bust.
Employed via Adecco, Nathan said: “The job advert seemed very much for a 40-hours-a-week job, but it’s only when you start you realise it’s zero hours and you are at the mercy of them.
“On the first week, no shifts were cancelled. Then you start getting four or five hours’ notice they’re cancelled.
“If you’re on nights, you could be sleeping all day only to wake up and find your shifts are cancelled. At least one week I got zero on my payslip.
“In December, they pretty much ghosted me. They stopped sending texts. I couldn’t get through to anyone. It’s pretty much slave labour.”
He was due to be paid £10.70 an hour for night shifts and £9.70 for day shifts, but despite working 2.30am to 10am, says he never got the higher rate, and was not paid at all for his first shift.
Law student Olivia Hall, 20, worked at Amazon in Doncaster, South Yorks, via the Adecco and PMP Recruitment agencies between May and October 2020.
After being told she would work five shifts a week, she got just two or three. She said: “New starters seemed to get five shifts for a few weeks, then it drops off.” The job was a 90-minute bus journey away and early starts often meant taking a £12 taxi to work.
She said: “Then you wouldn’t get paid because they didn’t need you.” Olivia left
the job after catching Covid and having to self-isolate. She said: “They still owed me some pay, about £300. It only got sorted because me and my mum made a fuss on Twitter.”
Andras Podor, 40, started work at Amazon’s warehouse in Bournemouth, Dorset, in October, employed via PMP.
He said: “A friend told me it was a