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Ministers have accused a Reform MP who complained that television adverts were “full of black people, full of Asian people” of using racist language, in a concerted effort to dent the party’s lead in the polls.

Sarah Pochin apologised on Saturday for what she called “poorly phrased” comments, made during a TalkTV interview in a post on X, but maintained that “British TV adverts have gone DEI-mad and are now under-representative of British society as a whole”.

Pochin had earlier told the phone-in programme that “every advert” appeared to feature “black and Asian people” as she responded to a viewer’s complaint about the demographics of television advertising.

The 56-year-old MP for Runcorn and Helsby said the caller was “absolutely right” and blamed what she called the “woke liberati” in the “arty-farty world” for the trend.

Her comments have led to a flurry of reactions from government and opposition MPs, who are trying to turn one of Reform UK’s culture war moments into an example of how they themselves respect Britain’s multicultural fabric.

Health secretary Wes Streeting told the BBC on Sunday that Pochin had said sorry only “because she’s been caught and called out”, as he warned of Britain returning to a “1970s, 1980s-style racism that I thought we had left in the history books”.

Referring to Reform’s party leader Nigel Farage, he said: “I think it was racist and the deafening silence from her party leader says it all.”

Justice secretary David Lammy called on Farage to “sack” Pochin from the party.

The two senior Labour ministers’ comments reflect a robust shift in the party’s public stance towards Reform.

Last month, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer used the word “racist” in describing Reform’s plan to scrap the main route for migrants to settle permanently in the UK.

Shadow Tory home secretary Chris Philp, however, struggled to decide how to respond to Pochin’s comments.

He first told the BBC he would not “call her racist”, adding “it’s certainly not language that I would use and I don’t think politicians should speak in those terms”. Hours later, he changed his mind, telling Times Radio “it was racist the way she said it”.

Reacting to Philp’s contradictory comments, Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said: “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.”

Reform’s head of policy Zia Yusuf defended Pochin. He told Sky News on Sunday that the MP had raised “a very valid point we must be able to talk about”, adding however that she was right to apologise for her comments.

Pochin and Reform UK did not immediately respond to a request for comment.