Rap star Dave hits back at Priti Patel interview defending the PM
Written by News on 20/02/2020
Dave has continued his attack on “racist” Boris Johnson following the rap star’s politically charged Brit Awards performance.
The 21-year-old accused the prime minister of being a “real racist” at Tuesday night’s awards ceremony, while he also criticised the media’s treatment of the Duchess of Sussex.
The Londoner has now sought to reinforce his claims as he responded to Home Secretary Priti Patel’s condemnation of the rap star’s comments about Mr Johnson as “utter nonsense” and “highly inappropriate”.
In a video posted on Twitter, Dave highlighted a series of Mr Johnson’s past remarks following Ms Patel’s declaration – made to Kay Burley on Sky News – that the prime minister “is not a racist at all”.
These included Mr Johnson’s reference to “flag-waving piccaninnies” in a 2002 article for The Daily Telegraph; and his description of “Aids-ridden choristers” in an article in the same year for The Spectator magazine, following a trip to Uganda.
The prime minister has previously responded to criticism of his past writings by apologising for “the offence I have caused” but vowed to “continue to speak directly as I can”.
“Occasionally some plaster comes off the ceiling as a result of a phrase I may have used, or the way that phrase has been wrenched out of context by those who wish for reasons of their own to caricature,” Mr Johnson said last year.
Meanwhile, a series of other celebrities have challenged the government’s new immigration system – as outlined by Ms Patel on Wednesday – by suggesting either they or their parents wouldn’t have been allowed into the UK under the new scheme.
Author Sathnam Sanghera urged others to share their stories on Twitter of how “you and your family wouldn’t be here, building businesses, charities and the NHS, contributing to British politics, art and sport, if the UK had had this suggested #pointsbasedsystem in the 20th Century”.
He challenged ex-chancellor Sajid Javid, who quit Mr Johnson’s government last week and whose parents were Pakistani immigrants, to be the first to respond.
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The Tory MP did not take up the offer but comic actors David Schneider and Rebecca Front, author Neil Gaiman, food critic Jay Rayner, writer Caitlin Moran and former Conservative Party chair Baroness Warsi all shared their own family stories.
The peer described how her grandfather arrived in the UK as a millworker in the 1950s but “wouldn’t have been allowed” under the new immigration system.
Baroness Warsi described how his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren have built “dozens” of multi-million pound businesses and are employed as doctors, lawyers, accountants, pharmacists, teachers and in the Armed Forces.
Ms Patel has swerved questions over whether her own parents, who moved to Britain from Uganda in the 1960s, would have been barred entry to the UK under the new immigration system.
A YouGov poll revealed 83% of Britons back the government’s requirement for migrants to speak English when coming to the country.
(c) Sky News 2020: Rap star Dave hits back at Priti Patel interview defending the PM
