Home secretary Priti Patel has criticised rapper Dave for branding Boris Johnson a “real racist” during the Brit Awards.
The Tory MP said the artist’s comments shortly before winning album of the year were “utter nonsense”, and she defended the prime minister as “not a racist at all”.
Dave added verses to the end of his song Black criticising the government for the Windrush scandal and its handling of the Grenfell disaster.
“The truth is our prime minister’s a real racist,” he rapped during the performance at London’s O2 Arena.
Patel was asked about Dave’s criticism as she defended the government’s immigration plans to refuse visas to low-skilled migrant workers after Brexit.
“Well, that’s utter nonsense, it really is,” she told Sky News.
“I mean I don’t know what those comments are based on. It’s wrong to make judgments about individuals when you don’t know a particular individual.
“He’s not a racist at all and I just think those comments are highly inappropriate.”
But the rap was backed by Tory peer Baroness Warsi, who highlighted Downing Street’s hiring of aide Andrew Sabisky, who claimed Black people have lower IQs.
“After the appalling appointment of #Sabinsky & the shameful lack of condemnation this week from No10 this performance felt like a necessary wake up call in the most provocative way,” the former Conservative Party chair tweeted.
Wow wow wowThat performance of #Black by #Dave @BRITs was powerful- pin drop silenceAfter the appalling appointment of #Sabinsky & the shameful lack of condemnation this week from No10 this performance felt like a necessary wake up call in the most provocative way 👏🏽#Respect https://t.co/PFP0vDvtIn
— Sayeeda Warsi (@SayeedaWarsi) February 18, 2020
Sabisky stood down amid mounting pressure when a slew of highly-criticised past comments surfaced, but No 10 has failed to condemn his remarks.
Labour is demanding to know whether the PM agrees with Sabisky’s views, pointing to an article published in the Spectator magazine when Johnson was its editor which claimed “blacks are at the other pole” to “orientals” who have “larger brains”.
Dave also paid tribute to London Bridge terror attack victim Jack Merritt, and criticised the PM’s response to impose more severe sentences.
“As a young black man who’s seen paper and crack. Give them tougher sentences? It’s just papering cracks,” he rapped.
And he criticised the government, saying: “Grenfell victims still need accommodation and we still need support for the Windrush generation.”
Dave won best album at the Brits for Psychodrama, which topped the UK album chart and won last year’s Mercury Prize.
