Meghan Markle has not “at all” been the subject of any racist attacks from the press, Priti Patel has said.
The Duchess of Sussex is set to join crisis talks with the Queen on the phone from Canada on Monday after she and Prince Harry announced they wanted to step back from their frontline roles in the royal family.
The couple has been subject to intense media scrutiny, and the prince has previously hit out at the “racial undertones” of the coverage of his wife.
Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live this morning, Patel dismissed the accusations of racism from the press.
“I’m not in that category at all where I believe there’s racism at all. I think we live in a great country, a great society, full of opportunity, where people of any background can get on in life,” the home secretary said.
Asked if the media had been in any way racist, she said: “I don’t think so, no.”
“I certainly haven’t seen that through any debates or commentary or things of that nature,” she added.
Anti-racism campaigner Patrick Vernon told HuffPost UK the media had a problem with the “visibility and success” of non-white Britons. “When you call racism out you are punished with little support,” he said.
The duchess is with their baby son Archie in Canada, but a royal source told PA Media it was likely she would join the crisis talks by phone.
She flew out of the UK a few days ago where the family spent an extended Christmas holiday break in British Columbia.
The duke, however, will come face to face with the Queen later as senior royals race to thrash out plans for Harry and Meghan’s future.
The historic meeting at the Queen’s private Sandringham estate will be the first time he has met his grandmother, the Prince of Wales and Duke of Cambridge since the row engulfed the royal family.