Comedian Trevor Noah says he did not claim “the entire UK is racist” after a row over a skit he did about the appointment of Rishi Sunak as PM.
On US news programme The Daily Show earlier this week, Noah had said there had been a “backlash” over Mr Sunak.
His comments were criticised in the UK, with many including ex-chancellor Sajid Javid calling Noah “simply wrong”.
But Noah has now defended his segment, saying he was reacting to racists, and: “That’s why I said. ‘Some people’.”
Mr Sunak is the UK’s first British Asian prime minister and officially took over as Conservative leader and PM on Tuesday, after a leadership process.
In the original comments on the US programme, Noah – who is South African and grew up during apartheid – said: “You hear a lot of the people saying ‘Oh, they’re taking over, now the Indians are going to take over Great Britain and what’s next?’
“And I always find myself going ‘So what? What are you afraid of? I think it’s because the quiet part that a lot of people don’t realise what they’re saying is, ‘We don’t want these people who were previously oppressed to get into power because then they may do to us what we did to them.'”
During his skit, Noah played a clip from radio station LBC during the latest Conservative leadership race a week ago, when a caller falsely claimed Mr Sunak was “not even British”.
Mr Javid tweeted in response that the comments from the comedian were “so wrong” and that Britain “is the most successful multiracial democracy on earth and proud of this historic achievement”.
Former Tory leadership contender Rory Stewart said Mr Noah’s remarks were “completely bizarre” and an example of “lazy stereotyping”.
Downing Street said on Thursday that Mr Sunak did not believe Britain was a racist country.
Presenter Piers Morgan also tweeted that US media was “falsely portraying Britain as a racist country”.
Noah finally responded on Friday evening, saying: “C’mon Piers, you’re smarter than that.
“I wasn’t saying “The entire UK is racist”, I was responding to the racists who don’t want Rishi as PM because of his race. That’s why I said. “Some people.”
