MPs are calling for Pochin to be suspended
Reform MP Sarah Pochin has been slammed for making ‘racist’ comments on TalkTV on Saturday.
Responding to a caller who complained about diversity on television and in advertising, Pochin said: “It drives me mad when I see adverts full of black people, full of Asian people, full of people that are anything other than white.”
Asked by the presenter what was wrong with that, Pochin said: “Your average white person, your average white family is like, I agree with you Stuart, not represented.”
The presenter responded: “There are lots of white people on television, Sarah, are there not?”.
Pochin said she was specifically talking about adverts: “How many times do you look at a TV advert and you think there’s not a single white person on it.”
Pochin has since apologised for her comments, stating that they were “poorly phrased” but that she believes British TV adverts “have gone DEI mad”.
Speaking on LBC, Labour MP Justin Madders said: “I can’t believe that any elected politician in this country is saying those sort of things frankly.”
The Ellesmere Port and Bromborough MP said that he feels for Pochin’s constituents who are from an ethnic minority background. He added: “She should be condemned roundly, the mask has slippped about what a lot of Reform MPs really think.”
Lib Dem MP Monica Harding wrote on X: “Sarah Pochin’s remarks on @TalkTV yesterday, about the portrayal of British families, are racist.
“If she’s not sacked by Reform UK then we can assume Nigel Farage and his party endorse her remarks.”
Deputy leader of the Lib Dems, Daisy Cooper said: “I think her comments were blatantly racist and I think she should be suspended. Nigel Farage has previously said he doesn’t want racism in his party and if that’s true, he needs to act.”
On Kuenssberg’s show yesterday, Tory MP and Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp refused to call Pochin’s comments racist, stating “I do think there are legitimate concerns the public have about mass migration.”
On Times Radio, Philp shifted his position, stating that “Yes it was racist the way she said it.”
Farage has so far failed to comment on her remarks.
Pochin, who was elected MP for Runcorn and Helsby in a by-election on 1 May, previously came under fire for using her first Prime Minister’s Question to ask whether the government would ban the burqa.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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