GB News urged to cut ties with contributor accused of racism | GB News

GB News is facing calls to cut ties with a regular contributor accused of racism after he claimed Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons Nusrat Ghani should not have been allowed into the house because he was born in Pakistan.

The comments by Lucy White, a right-wing activist, sparked criticism from across the political spectrum, amid warnings that openly racist language is becoming increasingly normalized in British life.

White, who was described as a public policy expert during an appearance on GB News and Rupert Murdoch’s TalkTV, said on the X account on Wednesday: “Today, chairing the Budget Statement in the UK House of Commons is Deputy President Nus Ghani.

“Nus Ghani was born in Kashmir, Pakistan. There should not be a single Pakistani-born person in the UK House of Commons.”

White, who has more than 18,000 followers on X, is one of a new generation of activists trying to introduce far-right language into public debate. As of Thursday afternoon, the comment had been retweeted more than 1,300 times and liked more than 9,000 times on X, which has increasingly become a platform for misinformation and xenophobic content since its previous incarnation, Twitter, was acquired by Elon Musk.

He is listed as a “global public policy consultant” on the website of US lobbying firm Gunster Strategies, which claims to work with clients such as Coca-Cola and AstraZeneca.

White, formerly a staff member for a Conservative MP, is also an activist with the Women’s Safety Initiative, a group that weaponises women’s safety to advance anti-immigrant rhetoric. Last summer, he tried to take advantage of tensions over housing asylum seekers in Britain.

White has previously cast doubt on Shabana Mahmood’s suitability to be home secretary due to her Pakistani origin. White made this statement during his talk with Jeremy Kyle on TalkTV.

Earlier this month he also said: “People like Mahmood, a Pakistani Muslim, who have the audacity to play pranksters [live-action role play] Like English, it is the cause of division in our country. The only way to ‘unite a divided country’ is to send third worlders home. “They will be more comfortable around their own people, and so will we.”

TalkTV described White as an occasional contributor, adding: “The views she expresses are her own and her recent social media post referencing Nus Ghani was reprehensible. We have no plans to welcome Lucy White back to Talk in the near future.”

However, GB News stopped short of saying it would not publish his views in the future. A spokesperson said: “Comments expressed by people on our platforms on their personal social media accounts do not reflect the views or values ​​of the channel.”

tell my momThe Guardian, a national project that records and measures anti-Muslim incidents, will be writing to GB News to ask for an explanation. “Anyone who espouses such views essentially marginalizes and excludes from our political life anyone with international heritage. This is clearly discriminatory and verges on racially segregated discourse, which is just a red line,” a spokesman said.

Oxfordshire Conservative councilor Liam Walker responded to X, saying: “Lucy is a racist. No broadcaster should put this racist on television to spread her vile hatred.”

“Last year I noticed how racism, both locally and nationally, had infiltrated everyday conversations and it had become almost acceptable to say such things,” he told the Guardian.

“The situation has definitely gotten worse. When I was knocking on doors in the county council elections in May I noticed how open people were to saying things they wouldn’t have been able to say before. It’s about social media but it’s also Reform UK who clearly have a problem with their party.”

Liberal Democrat MP Josh Babarinde said: “When you have the likes of Nigel Farage, where allegations of racism and antisemitism in his past come to light and he cannot answer questions about them, and his colleague Sarah Pochin talks about how seeing black and Asian people in TV adverts drives her crazy, it obviously emboldens people.

“It is encouraging that some parts of our society are increasing racism in their own way. Unless it is called out by people across the political spectrum, the situation will only get worse.”

The debate comes amid concerns about the increasing prevalence of racist language in political and public life. Reform UK was accused of embracing racism this month after choosing Matthew Goodwin, a former academic who argued that British-born people from minority ethnic backgrounds are not necessarily British, to head its new student organisation.

Ghani became the first Muslim female minister to speak from the House of Commons distribution box and the first Muslim woman elected as a Conservative Party MP in 2015. Born in Kashmir to Pakistani parents, Ghani grew up in Birmingham before studying at Birmingham City University and Leeds.

Ghani retweeted Nazir Afzal, the former attorney general of north-west England, commented on White’s post: “People whine about ‘British values’ while abandoning the greatest of all: democracy. Nus Ghani won his seat with votes, hard work and public service. If that threatens you, it’s not his citizenship you’re worried about. He’s British, elected by the British, doing a British job.”

White, who has a photo of Goodwin being interviewed on GB News. he said in the past He said his views led to him being labeled a racist while studying at Cambridge and among his schoolmates.