I called Sarah Pochin’s comments racist – I was told I couldn’t call her one

The thing about racism is, you must call it out – otherwise it spreads like wildfire.

On Saturday, Reform MP Sarah Pochin complained about adverts being ‘full of black people, full of Asian people’.

I was appalled by her comments, which she subsequently apologised for, and I was pleased to see the government take a strong stance, with the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, and Health Secretary all publicly labelled her words racist.

It’s exactly how I described them in the House of Commons yesterday.

Pochin’s so-called apology simply doesn’t cut it. It’s not enough to simply say sorry ‘for any offence caused.’ She has to apologise, explicitly, for making racist comments. As I said in parliament yesterday, I don’t believe her words were, as she claims, ‘phrased poorly’.

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