An East Lancashire MP has demanded action from the Labour Party after one of its MPs allegedly said the Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng “is superficially black” during an event.

Jake Berry, MP for Rossendale and Darwen and chair of the Conservative Party, has written to Labour leader Keir Starmer following the alleged incident last night at Labour Party Conference.

In the letter, sent in his party chair role, Mr Berry calls for action after Labour MP Rupa Huq made comments about the Chancellor and other Tory MPs during a fringe event organised by the British Future and Black Equity Organisation.

In the meeting, Rupa Huq is said to have told gathered crowds that Kwasi Kwarteng is “superficially a black man” and “if you heard him on the Today programme, you wouldn’t know he’s black”.

Ms Huq, MP for Ealing Central and Acton, was also accused of saying “superficially they [the Tories] have had four brown Chancellors, but when you have a little brown guy who, and the leadership contest I think that I’d say alludes to that, when there was say Suella Braverman, Kemi Badenoch, all these people in it”.

 

Kwasi Kwarteng was born in London to parents who had emigrated to the UK from Ghana as students.

Ms Huq, is also said to have referred to Rishi Sunak (the son of African Hindus of Indian descent), Sajid Javid (the son of Pakistani immigrants) and Nadhim Zahawi (an Iraqi refugee), along with Mr Kwarteng, as the “four brown Chancellors”, and also allegedly namechecked Suella Braverman (daughter of migrants of Indian origin) and Kemi Badenoch (daughter of Nigerian migrants).

Mr Berry added in his letter to Mr Starmer: “I trust you will join me in unequivocally condemning these comments as nothing less than racist and that the Labour whip will be withdrawn from Rupa Huq as a consequence.”

In a tweet, Mr Berry added that saying Mr Kwarteng is only “superficially black because he’s a Conservative is a vile thing to say.”

National news organisations have since reported that Ms Huq has been administratively suspended by Labour.