Former Love Island contestant Sherif Lanre has hit out at the ITV2 show for allowing Danny Bibby to remain after a social media post emerged of him using the N-word.
Ahead of his arrival in the villa during Friday (16 July) night’s episode, viewers had called for Bibby to be removed from the show after an Instagram post of his from 2019 circulated online in which he used the racial slur.
While contestants are not usually informed what is being written about them by the public, ITV “raised their concerns” with Bibby about the since-deleted post.
The plumber then made a statement from inside the villa, commenting that he wanted to apologise for his “unacceptable” and “inappropriate” remark.
However, further calls to remove Bibby have now been amplified by Lanre, who has accused the show of double standards.
The 22-year-old was in the starting line-up of the 2019 series of Love Island, but was removed from the villa after just nine days for using the phrase “c*** punt” after accidentally kicking a female contestant in the crotch.
“ITV have shown complete double standards when it comes to racism. They don’t seem to care,” Lanre told The Sun.
“A white guy has been allowed to apologise from inside the villa for using the N-word and carry on filming, whereas I was removed for play fighting and doing something by accident.”
He continued: “The N-word shouldn’t be used and this contestant should be removed from the house like I was, especially after the England football team were racially abused this week. ITV need to set an example.”
The Independent has contacted ITV for comment.
Love Island continues tonight at 9pm on ITV2.
