Ealing and Acton MP Rupa Huq publically apologised last night for her comments towards Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng after describing him as "superficially black".
Huq was suspended from the Labour Party, with an investigation pending on her position as a result of her remarks.
During Labour's What’s next for Labour’s Agenda on Race fringe conference, Huq was recorded saying: “He’s superficially, he’s a black man but again he’s got more in common… he went to Eton, he went, 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.”
The audio from the session was first published on the Guido Fawkes website.
Huq posted her apology on Twitter to publicly apologise to Kwarteng and that she had contacted the Chancellor to offer her “sincerest and heartfelt apologies”.
She also admitted that her comments were “ill-judged”.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has labelled the remarks "racist" and added that he took swift action by suspending her.
Featured image credit: David Woolfall under Creative Commons licence
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here