Wes Streeting has accused the Reform UK MP Sarah Pochin of making racist remarks after she said seeing adverts full of black and Asian people “drives her mad”.
The health secretary said Pochin was “only sorry she’s been caught and called out”, adding she had “said the quiet bit loud”, as he warned of a return to “1970s, 1980s-style racism”.
Streeting’s comments went further than Labour’s official remarks from the party chair, Anna Turley, who on Saturday night condemned Pochin’s remarks and said Reform was “more interested in dividing our country than uniting it”, but stopped short of explicitly calling the comments racist.
On Friday, Pochin, who is Reform UK’s MP for Runcorn and Helsby, complained that “every advert” seemed to feature “black and Asian people”, as she responded to a viewer on TalkTV who had complained about the demographics of advertising.
Pochin, 56, said the viewer was “absolutely right”, adding: “It doesn’t reflect our society and I feel that your average white person, average white family is … not represented any more,” blaming the “woke liberati” in the “arty-farty world”.
“It might be fine inside the M25,” she said, “but it’s definitely not representative of the rest of the country.”
She later apologised, saying her comments had been “phrased poorly” and she had not intended to cause offence.
“The point I was trying to make is that the British advertising agency world has gone DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] mad and many adverts are now unrepresentative of British society as a whole. I will endeavour to ensure my language is more accurate going forward.”
Streeting hardened Labour’s attack on Reform as he told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg show he had spent time in a London secondary school on Friday listening to boys describe racist abuse in “one of the most diverse cities on Earth”.
“What they are describing, and what we have seen on our streets in recent weeks and months, is a return of 1970s-, 1980s-style racism I thought we had left in the history books.
“The only way we are going to defeat this racism is to call it out and confront it for what it is, and for the decent majority of this country to stand against it as we have always done. I think what [Pochin] said was a disgrace. I think it was racist.”
He accused Reform of believing “our flag only belongs to some of us, who look like me, not all of us who have built this country and its success”, and that Britain remained the “most successful multifaith democracy in the world”.
Labour has called on Nigel Farage, the Reform leader, to denounce Pochin’s comments.
Zia Yusuf, the head of policy for Reform, told Sky News it was right that Pochin had apologised but said people must be able to talk about representation in advertising.
Yusuf said: “I know Sarah very well. I was instrumental in her selection as a candidate, worked very hard to get her elected, and I’m extremely glad that I did.
“I consider her a close friend and she’s a great MP for Runcorn. She did say those words and she has apologised, saying it was a poorly phrased thing to say, but you’ve got to put that into context.”
The Liberal Democrat leader, Ed Davey, joined criticism of Pochin’s remarks as he said on X: “This is racism, pure and simple. It’s sad to see the Conservatives are pandering so much to Reform that they are too scared to call it out.”
Several other Labour and Lib Dem MPs have also accused Pochin of using racist rhetoric.
Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, refused to class Pochin’s remarks as racist. He told the BBC: “It’s not language I would have used … but we should acknowledge the public do have legitimate concerns about large-scale immigration and discussing that is certainly not racist.”
Philp later sought to clarify his assessment of Pochin’s remarks as he told Times Radio: “She should not have said that in the way she said it, that was completely wrong and yes it was racist.”
A Labour party spokesperson responded by saying it was “shameful that Chris Philp failed to condemn Sarah Pochin’s racist comments six times in a row. It just goes to show how far the Tory party has fallen.”
Pochin appeared to double down on Sunday after Streeting’s criticism as she said on X: “Dear Wes Streeting, I’m sorry you feel that way. Perhaps you could remind us all how strongly you spoke up when this happened,” linking to a clip of the Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar, discussing a lack of diversity in Scottish public life.
