‘I wasn’t saying the entire UK is racist’: US TV host Trevor Noah denies saying Britain was a racist country after he was accused of inventing ‘backlash’ against new PM
Trevor Noah says he did not claim ‘the entire UK is racist’ as he sought to clarify remarks he made on The Daily Show following the appointment of Rishi Sunak as Prime Minister.
In a video posted on Twitter from his US satirical news programme, the South African comedian, 38, alleged there were people saying ‘now the Indians are going to take over Great Britain’.
His comments received a backlash online from many UK politicians including former Cabinet minister Sajid Javid, who said they were ‘simply wrong’.
Talk TV host Piers Morgan also criticized The Daily Show and other US media outlets for ‘falsely portraying Britain as a racist country’.
Responding to Morgan on Twitter, Noah said: ‘C’mon Piers you’re smarter than that.
‘I wasn’t saying ”The entire UK is racist”, I was responding to the racists who don’t want Rishi as PM because of his race… That’s why I said ”Some people”.’
However Morgan hit back, telling him: ‘No, you c’mon Trevor… there was no ”backlash” in the UK to Rishi Sunak becoming PM because of his heritage.
‘You made that up to create a racism narrative that simply didn’t happen… and we Brits are bored of US media (& disingenuous duchesses) making us out to be a bunch or racists.’
In his monologue, titled ‘Unpacking the backlash against new UK PM Rishi Sunak’, Noah had described seeing a ‘backlash’ following Mr Sunak’s appointment.
He said: ‘What I mean by that is this, you hear a lot of the people saying ‘Oh, they’re taking over, now the Indians are going to take over Great Britain and what’s next?’
‘And I always find myself going ‘So what? What are you afraid of?”
He added: ‘I think it’s because the quiet part a lot of people don’t realise they are saying is ‘We don’t want these people who were previously oppressed to get into power because then they may do to us what we did to them.”
Underneath the video, which has more than 850,000 views, social media users also questioned Noah’s comments with some accusing him of ‘projecting’ American views on race on to Britain.
Former chancellor and health secretary Mr Javid shared the clip and wrote: ‘Simply wrong. A narrative catered to his audience, at a cost of being completely detached from reality.