Community News Desk: Bangladeshi-origin British MP Rupa Huq has been administratively suspended from the Labour Party pending an investigation, after she was accused of making “racist” comments about Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, according to reports.
A former home minister in the shadow cabinet of former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, she made the remarks about the chancellor at a Labour conference fringe event on Monday.
The Conservative Party’s Chairman Jake Berry earlier condemned Rupa Huq’s “vile” comments and urged Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, to remove the whip from her, according to the Sky News.
Citing an audio recording posted online by the Guido Fawkes website, the British media reported the MP from Ealing Central and Acton can be heard saying: “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.”
In a letter to the Labour Party leader on Tuesday, Berry said he must take action against her, one of the four British-Bangladeshi MPs alongside Rushanara Ali, Tulip Siddique and Apsana Begum.
Former Conservative cabinet minister Sajid Javid said he was “appalled and saddened” by the comments, according to the Sky News.
“Rather than give encouragement to racists and people who seek to divide us, she should know better. Not too late for her to show that she does,” he wrote in a social media post.
