Yvette Cooper has condemned a post shared by a backbench Labour MP which described Kemi Badenoch as a “member of white supremacy’s black collaborator class”.
According to reports, Dawn Butler swiftly deleted her retweet of a post from Nigerian-British author Nels Abbey, which responded to the prospect of Badenoch becoming Conservative leader by describing “Badenochism” as “white supremacy in blackface”.
Badenoch was declared the new Conservative chief on Saturday in the closest Tory leadership contest in history. Badenoch beat former immigration minister Robert Jenrick in a ballot of party members — winning by about 10,000 votes.
Cooper, home secretary, has now said she strongly disagrees with the post in question, telling LBC that the comments are “clearly appalling”.
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When first questioned on the comments, Cooper said: “I didn’t see the post. I clearly strongly disagree with that. And I think the prime minister congratulated Kemi Badenoch on her election to be leader of the Conservative Party.”
But pressed on why no action had been taken against Butler, Cooper added: “As I said, I haven’t seen the post and I think those sorts of issues around party issues, those are always ones for the Whip.”
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In 2022, Labour MP Rupa Huq was suspended from the party for describing then-chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng as “superficially” black. Huq apologised and had the whip restored six months later.
Cooper went on: “The words that you have read out are clearly appalling and I would strongly disagree with them. So, I haven’t seen the post. I don’t know the circumstances around it but I think we should congratulate Kemi Badenoch on her election.
“I will continue to disagree with her on all sorts of issues, but, nevertheless, I congratulate her on her election.”
Commenting on Sunday, Ben Obese-Jecty, who was elected as the Conservative MP for Huntingdon in July, said Butler was “not alone on the government benches in holding this view of Kemi”.
He added: “This will be a test to see whether Keir Starmer removes the whip, or effectively condones Butler’s abhorrent approval of this smear.”
In later comments, Abbey, the author of the original post, said his statement had been “clearly satirical” and “intended as a sketch”.
He also defended Butler, saying she “may not welcome the ascendancy of an extremely right-wing reactionary black person”.
He added: “Because of stuff like this, which is vehement political disagreement, it is both fair and to be expected that many black people may not view Badenoch as (leader of the opposition) to be a ‘proud moment for our nation’ in the same way as, say, Keir Starmer does (or is politically mandated to).”
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