- Thursday, April 25, 2024
By: Eastern Eye Staff
PRITI PATEL says rapper Dave’s racism charges against Boris Johnson are “utter nonsense” and “highly inappropriate”.
The home secretary was reacting to queries from Sky News and BBC on Dave calling the prime minister a “real racist” at the Brit Awards on Tuesday (18).
Dave, 21, who won the Album of the Year award for Psychodrama at the O2, hit out at Johnson with the lines: “It is racist, whether or not it feels racist, the truth is our prime minister’s a real racist.
“They say, ‘you should be grateful, we’re the least racist’…
“I say the least racist is still racist.”
Speaking to Sky News, Patel said: “Well, that’s utter nonsense, it really is…
“It’s wrong to make judgments about individuals when you don’t know a particular individual, as in the case of the prime minister.
“He’s not a racist at all, and I just think those comments are highly inappropriate.”
Later, the on BBC Breakfast show, she reiterated the same views: “I simply do not subscribe to those comments at all.
“I know the prime minister. I’ve worked with the Prime Minister for a long time, for many years. He’s absolutely not a racist, and I’m afraid that is very much a generalisation that has been made by rapper Dave, and I just disagree with it.”
Tory peer Baroness Warsi, however, said the rap was “a necessary wakeup call in the most provocative way”, highlighting the “appalling appointment” of Downing Street aide Andrew Sabisky, who quit over allegations of racism, and the “shameful lack of condemnation for No 10”.
