Absolutely don’t think Britain is a racist country: Rishi Sunak

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Britain’s first Indian-born Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, has defended the UK’s race record. It came amid a row over controversial comments by a columnist attacking Prince Harry’s wife, Meghan Markle, who is of African-American descent.

Sunak was responding to questions posed by reporters during a visit to the Latvian capital of Riga on Monday when he spoke out against racism and stressed that his own heritage carries some weight on the subject. “I absolutely do not believe that Britain is a racist country. And I hope that as the first British Asian Prime Minister of our country, I say that it has weight,” he told reporters.

“You know, I’m really proud of our country, its culture, its resilience, its beauty. And in fact it is a huge privilege to stand up for Britain and indeed its institutions like the monarchy when I am on the world stage as I am here today,” said the UK-born politician. UK, which has its family roots in Punjab. .

Sunak said this in relation to an ongoing row over former TV presenter and columnist Jeremy Clarkson writing in The Sun ‘about hating Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, ‘on a cellular level’; following the controversial Harry and Meghan documentary that recently aired on Netflix.

Clarkson’s column received more than 6,000 complaints to the Independent Press Standards Organization (IPSO), resulting in an apology from the writer and the newspaper removing the column from its website. “For everyone in public life, language matters,” Sunak said when asked about the fury. Meanwhile, more than 60 British MPs from all parties have written to The Sun’s editor, Victoria Newton , to demand that action be taken against Clarkson.

In a letter, they said Meghan Markle had received credible death threats and that columns such as Clarkson’s contributed to an unacceptable climate of hatred and violence. The letter, co-ordinated by Caroline Nokes, Conservative Party chair of the House of Commons Select Committee on Women and Equalities, was signed by other Tory MPs as well as MPs from the opposition Labor, Lib Dem , Green and SNP.

“We can no longer let this type of behavior go unchecked. We welcome the Sun’s retraction of the article and now demand that action be taken against Mr Clarkson and an unqualified apology to Ms Markle immediately, they write.

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