STOCKTON-ON-TEES, England: British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he was hurt and angry that a supporter of Nigel Farage’s right-wing Reform UK party had been recorded making a racial slur about him, saying it was too important for him not to speak out.
Sunak, Britain’s first ethnic-minority prime minister, was responding to comments broadcast by Channel 4 News, by a man named as Andrew Parker calling Sunak a “f… Paki” — a British racial slur for people of South Asian descent.
Sunak was born in the southern English port city of Southampton in 1980 to Hindu parents of Punjabi Indian descent.
“My two daughters have to see and hear Reform people who campaign for Nigel Farage calling me an effing Paki. It hurts and it makes me angry, and I think he has some questions to answer,” Sunak told broadcasters on Friday.
“I don’t repeat those words lightly, I do so deliberately because this is too important not to call out clearly for what it is.”
Parker provided a statement to Channel 4 News, in response to them saying they would broadcast the video that was taken without his knowledge, saying that no one at Reform was aware of his personal views on immigration.
“I would therefore like to apologize profusely to Nigel Farage and the Reform Party if my personal views have reflected badly on them and brought them into disrepute as this was not my intention,” he said.
“I offered to help the Reform Party on their canvassing as I believe that they are the only party that offer the UK voter a practical solution to the illegal immigration problem that we have in the UK.”
In the Channel 4’s video, Parker says: “I’ve always been a Tory (Conservative) voter but what annoys me is that f… Paki we’ve got in. What good is he? You tell me, you know. He’s just wet. F… useless.”
Farage said in a statement late on Thursday, when the comments were first broadcast, that he was dismayed by the language. On Friday he said on Twitter: “We now learn that he is an actor by profession.
“This whole episode does not add up.”
Reuters could not immediately reach Parker for comment. Channel 4 News said in a statement that they covertly filmed Parker and did not know him before they met him as a Reform volunteer.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he was hurt and angry that a supporter of Nigel Farage’s right-wing Reform UK party had been recorded making a racial slur about him, saying it was too important for him not to speak out. (AFP/File)
