Labour Party leadership has failed to address comments from party officials who attacked newly-appointed British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on his race, saying his achievement was “not a win for Asian representation.”
A Labour spokesperson confirmed to multiple outlets – including The Express, BBC and The Guardian – that the Labour Party headquarters had urged Nottingham Labour MP Nadia Whittome to delete the tweet.
However, when asked directly about the topic, Sir Keir Starmer instead talked about how he “welcomed” Sunak’s appointment as a “real milestone” for the country while failing to condemn his party member’s comments.
“Let me be very clear with you about the position of the Labour Party – and I was able to say that at Prime Minister’s Questions – and that was to welcome the first British Asian Prime Minister as a real milestone for our country,” Starmer said. “It shows that in Britain, whatever your race whatever your beliefs, your dream can come true.”
When pushed on whether he told Whittome to delete the tweet, Starmer told Sky News that “the position of the Labour Party is as I set out,” adding that “The whole of the Labour party is very pleased to do so.”
Labour MP for Nottingham East Nadia Whittome attends Andrew Marr’s BBC Political Sunday Morning Show at BBC Broadcast House on Jan. 19, 2020 in London.
(Photo by Ollie Millington/Getty Images)
Whittome made the disparaging comments about Rishi following his win in the Conservative Party leadership challenge, adding that Sunak was “not on your side” in a now-deleted tweet.
“He’s a multi-millionaire who, as chancellor, cut taxes on bank profits while overseeing the biggest drop in living standards since 1956,” Whittome wrote. “Black, white or Asian: if you work for a living, he is not on your side.”
Sunak is one the wealthiest people to ever hold the office of prime minister – his wealth largely coming from his wife. The couple’s combined worth is said to be worth a little over $800 million, making Sunak the only British prime minister to date who is richer than the sitting monarch.
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Other MPs have also made negative comments about Sunak’s race, including SNP MP Anum Qaisar – born to a Scottish Pakistani family – who wrote on Twitter that “just because you share the same characteristics as someone, does not mean that you’ll be supportive of that community.”
Scottish Conservative Party members have urged Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to condemn the language and demand an apology from Qaisar, who also deleted her comment.
New British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak arrives at Downing Street in London, Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2022, after returning from Buckingham Palace where he was formally appointed to the post by Britain’s King Charles III.
(AP Photo/Frank Augstein)
Additionally, British academic Dr. Shola Mos-Shogbamimu wrote that she would “love to celebrate this moment but can’t because of Rishi Sunak.”
“In representation & substance he’s the status quo of normalising systemic racism, anti-woke & culture war-mongering,” Mos-Shogbamimu wrote. “Representation can’t just be skin deep, substance matters.”
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Nile Gardiner, director of The Heritage Foundation’s Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, argued that the Conservative Party has achieved the kind of diversity that Labour continues to demand.
“The Conservative Party has had three women prime ministers and the first Asian British prime minister but has never supported or implemented in any way identity politics,” Gardiner told Fox News Digital. “The race or sex of the leader of the Conservative Party is simply not an issue, and this is a huge contrast to the approach of the opposition Labour Party, which is obsessed with issues of race and gender.”
Britain’s opposition Labour Party Shadow Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union Keir Starmer delivers a speech at their election campaign event on Brexit in Harlow, England Nov. 5, 2019.
(AP Photo/Matt Dunham, File)
“The fact that Rishi Sunak is prime minister is nothing to do with issues of race and identity politics,” Gardiner stressed. “The British people don’t care about the race of the prime minister: They care about having strong, effective leadership, and the British socialists continue to support policies of racial division and are obsessed with a poisonous woke ideology.”
The Labour Party spokesperson also said that Whittome was in talks with the party’s chief whip about the next steps, but local news outlet Nottinghamshire Live reported that Whittome’s office denied reports that she was in discussions with the chief whip.
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Her spokesperson also tried to clarify Whittome’s initial tweet, arguing that the MP was “pointing to Rishi Sunak’s record as Chancellor to demonstrate that effective political representation of British Asian communities – and the interests of all working people – is about far more than the ethnicity of the Prime Minister.”
