Wes Streeting has in no uncertain terms condemned Reform MP Sarah Pochin – and the silence from some in her party – following comments she made about black and Asian people in adverts.
Speaking to TalkTV on Saturday, Pochin stated that it “drove her mad” seeing a high proportion of minorities featured in television adverts, instead of “white families”. The statement caused shockwaves online, and there are already calls for her to lose her role as an MP.
The representative for Runcorn went on to state that the average white person ‘does not feature’ in TV ads, before going on to blame the ‘wokerati’ for the perceived shift in demographics.
Pochin has since apologised for her comments, but this hasn’t washed with some, including health secretary Wes Streeting.
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Speaking on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Streeting said that Pochin had only said sorry “because she’s been caught and called out”.
He rejected her apology, saying she was “only sorry because she was caught and called out and said the quiet bit out loud”.
Streeting labelled Pochin’s comments “a disgrace” and “racist.”
He continued: “What we have seen is a return of 1970s and 1980s-style racism I thought we had left in the history books.
“The only way we are going to defeat this racism is to call it out and confront it for what it is.”
The Labour minister also hit out at Reform leader Nigel Farage for his “deafening silence” on the controversy.
Meanwhile, justice secretary David Lammy has said he was “disgusted” by Pochin’s words, and called on Farage to sack her from Reform for the “mean, nasty and racist” remarks.
These calls have been echoed by the Liberal Democrats, with party spokesman Max Wilkinson saying Farage “must withdraw the whip or concede that Reform tolerates blatant racism.”