A top Boris Johnson ally has lashed out at Dave for calling the Prime Minister a “real racist” at the BRITs.
Home Secretary Priti Patel said the claim was “utter nonsense” – and claimed no one could level the accusation against the Tory leader before meeting him personally.
Rapper Dave used his performance last night to share politically-charged lyrics and comment on the aftermath of the Grenfell fire.
It came days after a No10 advisor who said black Americans had a lower average IQ than white Americans quit his post.
Amid the row, Boris Johnson’s deputy spokesman refused to answer whether the PM – who once described black people as “piccanninies” in a column – shared the views.
But today Ms Patel hit back at claims the PM was guilty of racial prejudice.
(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
She told Sky News: “That’s utter nonsense, it really is. I don’t know what those comments are based on.
“It’s wrong to make judgements about individuals when you don’t know a particular individual, as in the case of the Prime Minister.
“He is not a racist at all and I just think those comments are highly inappropriate.”
Interviewed by the BBC, she added the comments by Dave were “very much a generalisation” and “artists and entertainers say all sorts of things.”
(Image: PA)
She did not see the BRITs performance but said: “I worked with the Prime Minister. I know Boris Johnson very well. No way is he a racist.
“So I think that is a completely wrong comment and a wrong assertion to make against our Prime Minister.”
It comes after the musician – who won Best Album – gave a show-stopping performance demanding “Equality is a right” as words such as “Black” and “Go Home” flashed up in the visuals.
(Image: Leon Neal)
The musician, whose full name is David Omoregie, is not the first to criticise a PM from the BRITs stage.
Stormzy used his performance two years ago to demand: “ Theresa May where’s the money for Grenfell? What you thought we just forgot about Grenfell?
“You criminals, and you’ve got the cheek to call us savages, you should do some jail time, you should pay some damages, you should burn your house down and see if you can manage this.”
Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott told the BBC: ”I think that what Dave said about Boris (Johnson) clearly resonated with people, particularly after this incident in the past few days where Number 10 brought in a policy adviser who thought that black people were inferior intellectually to white people.
“I think Boris has a lot to do to convince the community that he’s not unduly negative about black people and Muslim people.”
Meanwhile Ms Patel made an eyebrow-raising claim as she defended Britain’s decision to deport drug offenders, many of which have lived in the UK for decades, to Jamaica.
She told Sky “There’s no such thing as ‘dabbling’ in drugs” – despite her Cabinet colleague Michael Gove previously admitting he did just that with cocaine. Boris Johnson has also refused to answer clearly whether he took cocaine once as a teenager.
