CHANCELLOR Kwasi Kwarteng has highlighted an error from one UK media outlet after it posted a photo of a prominent black economist labelled as him.
The Mirror had included a photo at the top of a story entitled: “Kwasi Kwarteng says he had to do 'something different' after causing budget chaos.”
The photograph was captioned: “Kwasi Kwarteng said he had to ‘do something different’ with mini-budget.”
However, the Chancellor posted on Twitter to say that it was not him in the photograph.
He wrote: “That isn’t me… @DailyMirror”
That isn’t me… @DailyMirror pic.twitter.com/rcxn4VjoNW
— Kwasi Kwarteng (@KwasiKwarteng) October 1, 2022
Instead, the photograph showed Bernard Mensah, the president of international for the Bank of America, outside the Treasury.
The mistake has opened the paper up to accusations of “racism”, with Tory MP Marcus Fysh calling it "really disgraceful".
In a post reshared by Tory MP Brendan Clarke-Smith, broadcaster Trevor Phillips commented: “Seriously? On Day 1 of Black History Month?”
International trade secretary Kemi Badenoch shared a post from local Tory organiser Ben Obese-Jecty which read: “Good to see the Daily Mirror kicking off it’s coverage of Black History Month with this they-all-look-the-same-don’t-they clanger.
“You’d think, given the coverage he’s received this week, that most people in the press would know what Kwasi Kwarteng looked like…”
And Michael Fabricant MP shared a post which read: “Just the left saying that all black people look the same. More racism from the left. Do they ever stop?”
The Mirror has since changed the picture to one that does show Kwarteng, and deleted any social media posts which contained the error.
In a statement, the outlet said it apologised for the "terrible" mistake.
This morning a picture in a story about Kwasi Kwarteng was wrongly captioned on the Mirror website.
— The Mirror (@DailyMirror) October 1, 2022
This was a terrible error and we apologise to Mr Kwarteng and all our readers.
The Mirror has a long history of working against racism and we will redouble our efforts on this.
It said: "This morning a picture in a story about Kwasi Kwarteng was wrongly captioned on the Mirror website.
"This was a terrible error and we apologise to Mr Kwarteng and all our readers.
"The Mirror has a long history of working against racism and we will redouble our efforts on this."
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