Dawn Butler criticized for ‘race baiting madness’ after Kemi Badenoch’s rant | Politics

Labour’s Dawn Butler has been accused of “race-baiting madness” after she retweeted a post calling new Tory leader Kemi Badenoch a “white supremacist”.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has come under pressure to remove Labour’s whip from Brent East MP Ms Butler after she apparently shared a tweet calling Ms Badenoch “a member of a class of black white supremacist collaborators”.

Former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng spoke about this. UK News: “She has such a story.

“On a personal level, I’ve always gotten along with her, but her race-baiting is completely absurd. You can imagine that if Kemi had lost, she would have said the same thing.

“She would say, ‘Of course Kemi lost because Tori racist and Britain is racist.” Now that she’s won, she still calls it racist. This is crazy.”

Speaking about calls for Ms Butler to be removed, Mr Cleverley added: “I truly believe that, given what she has said, the whip should be taken off her.

“There needs to be some kind of disciplinary action taken against this… she incredibly accuses Kemi of being some sort of front for white supremacy. I mean, that’s literally what she suggested.

“You can see exactly how they think because if Rob had won, for example, they would have said the same thing – that it was white supremacy or something like that.

“Everything they disagree with, they try to filter through the same narrative, regardless of the actual circumstances.

“Many years ago, say 20 or 25 years ago, you had to deal with outright, old-fashioned racists. The problem now, I think, is with people like Don Butler, because they will call you a coconut or call you all sorts of other names.

“Absurdly, they are accusing Kemi of being a white supremacist or the face of white supremacy, using incredibly offensive language that if anyone else had used it, they would have been reprimanded.”

“The real threat is those on the far left who ruthlessly and ruthlessly exploit race.”

Asked whether such smearing could damage Ms Badenoch’s future election chances, Mr Kwarteng said: “I think the vast majority of people will judge her on her own merits and if she does well in her job, I think she has a very good chance of being elected.” elected.”

Ms Butler quickly deleted her retweet of a post by Nigerian-British writer Nels Abbey, who responded to the prospect of Ms Badenoch becoming Tory leader by describing “Badenochism” as “white supremacy in blackface”.

Sir Keir previously suspended the whip of Labor MPs in response to comments about senior black Tory politicians.

In 2022, he suspended Rupa Huka from the party for calling then-chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng a “shallow” black man. Ms Hook apologized and the whip was returned to her six months later.

Other Labor figures, including Sir Keir and Foreign Secretary David Lammy, hailed Ms Badenoch’s election as the first black leader of a major British party as a historic moment.

In later posts, Mr Abbey said his initial comments were “clearly satirical” and “intended as a sketch”, but defended Ms Butler, saying she “may not welcome the dominance of a far-right reactionary black man”.

Express.co.uk has contacted Ms Butler for comment.