After sparking a backlash, Reform MP Sarah Pochin said she hadn’t meant to offend anyone with her rant about diversity in advertising and the comments were ‘phrased poorly’
Reform UK MP Sarah Pochin has apologised for offence she may have caused by saying “it drives me mad when I see adverts full of Black people, full of Asian people”.
After sparking a major backlash on Saturday, she said she hadn’t meant to offend anyone and the comments were “phrased poorly”.
But the Runcorn and Helsby MP doubled down on her claim that many adverts are “unrepresentative of British society”.
The row began on a TalkTV phone-in, when Ms Pochin was responding to a called called Stuart, who complained about the demographics of advertising.
The MP said he was “absolutely right” and “it drives me mad when I see adverts full of black people, full of Asian people”.
READ MORE: Reform UK MP says seeing adverts ‘full of Black people’ drives her ‘mad’
She said: “It doesn’t reflect our society and I feel that your average white person, average white family is not represented anymore in TV advertising.
“We are talking about adverts, and how many times do you look at an advert and think ‘there’s not a single white person on it. Actually it is, it’s something that has happened, I believe because of the woke liberati that goes on inside this sort of arty farty world, and it when it comes to northern towns like Runcorn that I represent, it is just not representative of the rest of the country.
“It might be fine inside the M25 but it’s definitely not representative of the rest of the country.”
But in a later statement, she said she was trying to say the advertising industry had gone “DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) mad”.
She said: “My comments were phrased poorly and I apologise for any offence caused, which was not my intention.
“The point I was trying to make is that the British advertising agency world have gone DEI 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.”
Labour Party chairwoman Anna Turley said: “It’s astonishing that a senior Reform MP is spending her time counting the numbers of people with a different skin colour to her on TV adverts.
“Defining British people by the colour of their skin is completely unacceptable and shows once again that Reform are more interested in dividing our country than uniting it.
“Nigel Farage needs to condemn this now, and urgently clarify whether Sarah Pochin’s views on race are welcome in his party.