Kevin Clifton has defended his former Strictly Come Dancing partner Stacey Dooley, amid a row about her recent trip to Uganda for Comic Relief.
The documentary maker was criticised by MP David Lammy for perpetuating “tired and unhelpful stereotypes” after travelling to Africa to make an appeal film for the charity.
The Labour MP accused her of ‘white saviourism’, after Stacey also shared a picture of her with a young Ugandan child with the caption: “OBSESSSSSSSSSSED”.
As debate on the matter started on social media, and spilled out onto various TV shows, including This Morning, Kevin weighed in to back Stacey on Twitter.
He wrote: “Im sorry but @DavidLammy u r so wrong on this. What are your priorities? Some are in desperate need of help.If people are in a position to raise money and awareness why should they not just because they are white? You just can’t win for trying to help.”
After learning David had turned down previous offers to make films for Comic Relief himself, Kevin then accused him of using “tv/radio opps to criticise @StaceyDooley for deciding to put her platform & time to good use and raise awareness and money for people who need it and has been for 10 yrs.”
Responding to a clip from the Victoria Derbyshire Show, in which Barrister Samantha Davies argued that she didn’t see celebrities taking photos with poor children in the UK, he wrote: “Then she must have missed @StaceyDooley entire documentary on homelessness in the uk and trying to help those young people. An entire doc not just a picture. This criticism is so uninformed.”
Kevin, who won the most recent series of Strictly with Stacey, continued to debate with people on social media, claiming Stacey was the “wrong target” of the criticism.
He also claimed that David Lammy’s comments “take us further away from embracing diversity”, adding he was “being personal” by calling Stacey out.
Stacey herself has responded to David’s criticism, writing on Twitter: “David, is the issue with me being white? (Genuine question)” she wrote. “Because if that’s the case, you could always go over there and try raise awareness?
“Comic relief have raised over 1 billion pounds since they started. I saw projects that were saving lives with the money. Kids lives.” [sic]
The MP later called into This Morning to expand on his comments, stating his belief that Comic Relief “could have some Africans talking about their context”, instead of sending celebrities over on “expensive flights” to make appeal films.
“You could go to African comedians, you could film part of the night in the continent of Africa,” he said.
He added it was time for the charity to “move on” and accept there was a need for “change and reform”.
Host Phillip Schofield also argued Stacey’s picture was “essentially very innocent” and defended the star.
“What does colour have to do with anything?” he said, talking about Stacey’s film.
“If you’re well meaning, so you think ‘okay I can’t go there because I am white’ or ‘I can’t do this charity video because I am white’, this in itself is racist.”
Meanwhile, Comic Relief has released a statement on the matter, in which they said they are “really grateful” to Stacey for going to Uganda for filming and “make no apologies for this”.
They also added: “We have previously asked David Lammy if he would like to work with us to make a film in Africa and he has not responded. The offer is still open.”