“Racist and offensive”: Kwasi Kwarteng responds to ex-Number 10 adviser’s comments

Andrew Sabisky resigned yesterday after a series of statements he made linking race and intelligence came to light

ON THE UP?: Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng

KWASI KWARTENG has said comments made by former Number 10 adviser Andrew Sabisky were “racist and offensive”.

Sabisky resigned yesterday after a number of disparaging comments he made about black people and women were unearthed.

Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live this morning, Kwarteng said: “The message has been clear – his remarks were totally unacceptable. They were racist and they were offensive and he has left whatever post he had. I don’t know who he is. I read in the papers he’s 27 years old, I don’t know how he’s had time to write all this stuff to be honest.”

The business minister added: “It’s been objectionable, offensive and he’s left the government. I think it’s unfortunate he was hired. He’s now left and we can now all move on.”

Kwarteng’s public response to Sabisky’s statements was issued nearly 48 hours after they resurfaced.

Boris Johnson has been criticised for his failure to fire Sabisky and condemn his comments.

Weirdos and misfits

Questions have been raised over how the 27-year-old was hired in the first place.

Kwarteng today called for the government to look into its hiring and vetting processes to “prevent racists from coming into Number 10”.

Critics have said that the government got what it asked for following a call for “weirdos and misfits” by Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson’s chief adviser.

David Lammy, Labour MP for Tottenham, said: “So when Dominic Cummings put out an advert for ‘weirdos’ to work in Number 10, it turns out he meant supporters of Eugenics. Deeply sinister. Andrew Sabisky should be nowhere near government.”

Labour MP for Streatham Bell Ribeiro-Addy said: “You don’t have to believe black people have lower IQs than white people to get a job at 10 Downing Street. But it helps.”

In one comment posted on Cumming’s website in 2014, Sabisky proposed that black Americans are on average less intelligent than white Americans.

He wrote: “If the mean black American IQ is (best estimate based on a century’s worth of data) around 85, as compared to a mean white American IQ of 100, then if IQ is normally distributed (which it is), you will see a far greater percentage of blacks than whites in the range of IQs 75 or below, at which point we are close to the typical boundary for mild mental retardation. Typically criminals with IQs below 70 cannot be executed in the USA, I believe.

“That parsimoniously explains the greater diagnostic rates for blacks when it comes to ‘Intellectual disability’.”

He also stated that: “There are excellent reasons to think the very real racial differences in intelligence are significantly – even mostly – genetic in origin, though the degree is of course a very serious subject of scholarly debate.”

In a tweet published last year, Sabisky said: “I am always straight up in saying that women’s sport is more comparable to the Paralympics than it is to men’s.”

Comments Form

1 Comment

  1. | Gustavus

    IQ tests were invented by Nazis to justify racism using pseudoscience. Reinforced by “the bell curve” in 1994

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*
*

Support The Voice

The Voice Newspaper is committed to celebrating black excellence, campaigning for positive change and informing the black community on important issues. Your financial contributions are essential to protect the future of the publication as we strive to help raise the profile of the black communities across the UK. Any size donation is welcome and we thank you for your continued support.

Support Sign-up