Rishi Sunak dodges questions over royal ‘race’ row and says it’s not ‘right’ for him to comment – as he attends COP28 summit with King Charles
Rishi Sunak today dodged questions about the royal ‘race’ row as he attended the COP28 summit with King Charles.
The Prime Minister insisted it would not be “right” for him to comment, citing the “long-standing and appropriate” agreement that ministers do not discuss the royal family.
Asked about the furious row over Omid Scobie’s book by journalists en route to Dubai, Mr Sunak said: ‘Under long-standing and appropriate convention it would not be right for me to discuss the Royal Family in any way. to talk.’
But the Prime Minister did praise the King and said he was ‘delighted’ that the monarch is present at the global climate summit and is jubilant ‘the respect he has for this issue around the world.”
Scobie last night took the extraordinary step of swearing on live TV on his own life and that of his family that the appointment of two members of the royal family in the Dutch version of Endgame is not a ‘stunt’ to shift more copies of his book.
Rishi Sunak insisted it would not be ‘right’ for him to comment, pointing to the ‘long-standing and appropriate’ agreement that ministers do not discuss the Royal Family
Mr Sunak praised the King (pictured today), saying he was ‘delighted’ to have the monarch at the global climate summit and welcomed ‘the respect he has for this issue around the world’
Scobie, 42, said he was “hurt” by the suggestion and dismissed it as a conspiracy theory by people who want to believe he is “in cahoots” with Meghan Markle. He stated: ‘It couldn’t be further from the truth. ‘.
He also refused to apologize for the racism scandal that has broken out, claiming: ‘I’m just as frustrated as everyone else. The book I wrote, the book I edited, the book I signed, there were no names in it.’
But questions remain over whether he entered the names, as one of the Dutch translators told MailOnline yesterday: ‘The names of the royal family were there in black and white. I didn’t add them’.
Speaking to Victoria Derbyshire on BBC Two’s Newsnight, Mr Scobie was asked to point out that the farrago over the Dutch translation was not a PR stunt. He raised his hands, shook his head and replied, “About my life, about the life of my family.” Mrs Derbyshire said: ‘You don’t have to go that far, it’s fine.’
Scobie then said, “No, it’s serious because I feel hurt by some of the things I’ve seen that suggest a conspiracy theory, that this is some kind of publicity stunt, and “I’m in cahoots with my friend.” [Meghan]’ and that kind of nonsense because it contributes to something that couldn’t be further from the truth’.
Victoria then said: ‘In some version you must have written the names and the wrong version may have gone to the people in charge of rights around the world, I assume.’ Mr. Scobie did not respond.
It came as media organizations around the world, including the BBC, ITV, The Guardian and The Times, named the two royals accused of asking about Archie’s skin color as King Charles and his daughter-in-law Kate.
In a tense interview on BBC’s Newsnight, Omid Scobie declared: ‘It’s not for me to apologize because I still want to know what happened.’