by This is when comedian Nish Kumar publicly called out Dominic Raab on TV after the deputy prime minister apparently confused him with another ‘brown man’ on the set of a BBC show.
Mr Kumar said Mr Raab confused him with Gary Marlowe, the brother of anti-Brexit campaigner Gina Miller, when the trio were backstage at question time in north London in 2018.
Since then he has told The independent that he had “no confidence” that Mr. Raab could “distinguish between different Asians”.
Speaking on BBC 2’s satirical news show The Mash Reportof the alleged incident, he said, “When I walked into the green room, and this is a true story, you said ‘Nice to meet you Nish!’ to a man who turned out to be Gina Miller’s brother.
“Even though the show tweeted pictures of all of us the day before so we all know what each other looked like, you just ignored it and went to the first brown guy you saw and assumed it was me. Even though he has no glasses and no beard!”
Ms. Miller described the confusion in an article for The independent in which she also accused Mr Raab of being “aggressive and intimidating” when invited to BBC Radio 4 Today show to debate Brexit in 2016.
She said Mr Raab caused the confusion years later, when she appeared on the BBC panel show and brought her brother along for support.
She wrote that Mr Raab arrived “and walked straight to my brother – a serious looking, bespectacled, very short haired doctor – and said ‘I’m Dominic Raab, looking forward to sitting on the panel with you tonight’ with that grin which he does. I looked up from the papers I was reviewing in preparation. My brother was shocked and said, “Do you think I’m Nish Kumar? We’re not all the same, you know?
Mr Kumar said Mr Raab “did not even acknowledge that the offense took place”.
“What annoyed me was that he had no remorse afterwards,” he said. “He just went to the first brown man he saw, was immediately corrected, but didn’t even acknowledge the offense had happened.
“I must say I was not confident that he can differentiate between different Asians. But it left both of us with a feeling of disrespect and contempt for our identity.”
Mr Marlowe added: “He came up to me and said ‘Hi Nish’ – even though I look nothing like him. I thought what an idiot. Just because we’re both brown doesn’t mean we’re interchangeable.
“I have a thick skin. I’ve been beaten up by National Front thugs, so this is small beer by comparison”.
Journalist Piers Morgan and Labor MP Dawn Butler also appeared that evening.
Meanwhile, Ms Miller described the “abusive attack” in 2016, saying Mr Raab was “aggressive and intimidating, and I was bullied and humiliated.”
“I can’t decide if you are naive, have too much money or are just stupid,” she claimed he told her in the first official charges against the deputy prime minister.
Mr Raab was also “furious” when a young man told her a car was waiting to pick her up, Ms Miller said, adding that he yelled at the man: “Go get me a ****** car .”
Mr Marlowe added: “He owes my sister an apology for what he said to her, which was harassing and misogynistic. He is a powerful personality and we felt the brunt.”
A spokesperson for Mr Raab said: “Dominic firmly rejects the description and characterization of him portrayed by Gina Miller. He always treats people with the utmost respect and has never sworn at the staff.”
