Rupa’s race distraction
KWASI KWARTENG owes Rupa Huq a nice lunch by way of thanks. Just when the chancellor was under attack from nearly all sides over his “mini-budget”, Rupa managed to get him a sympathy vote by casting a slur over his racial origins.
Akwasi Addo Alfred Kwarteng, 47, was born in London of Ghanaian parents, and was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge.
At a fringe meeting at a Labour party conference in Liverpool, Rupa, MP for the west London seat of Ealing Central and Acton, questioned whether a successful black man could be considered really black.
During a question and answer 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.”
She offered an apology after Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer moved swiftly to suspend her from the party: “My comments were ill-judged and I wholeheartedly apologise to anyone affected.”
I know Rupa, who is former Blue Peter presenter Konnie Huq’s elder sister, from the time she used to write for the Asian Age when I was its launch editor in London. It would be a pity if her political career were to end over this controversy.