Sunday Times criticised for saying people ‘secretly enjoyed’ racist Prince Philip comment

The Sunday Times has been criticised for saying people ‘secretly enjoyed’ a racist comment Prince Philip once made.

Writing on Twitter, numerous people have denounced the paper, after it ran a front page story about the late Duke’s funeral, in which chief foreign correspondent Christina Lamb joked about his controversial comments.

She wrote: “To her subjects, Prince Philip was the longest serving royal consort in British history - an often crotchety figure, offending people with gaffes about slitty eyes, even if secretly we rather enjoyed them.”

But those reading the story were shocked to see the publication praise this comment.

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Miqdaad Versi, media spokesman for the Muslim Council, said: “This is appalling journalistic practice by the Sunday Times.”

Lawyer Jo Maugham added:

The comment Lamb was referring was made during a royal visit to China in 1986. It was reported that Prince Philip told a group of British students: “If you stay here much longer you’ll all be slitty-eyed.”

Even at the time, the comments caused controversy. The Daily Mirror and the Sun both wrote about the incident, with the former calling the Duke “the great wally of China.”

And following the Sunday Times’ flippancy about the controversy, others accused the paper of ‘racism’.

Comedian Jim Felton said:

Another person wrote:

Later in the evening, Sky News journalist Nick Stylianou spotted that the paper had edited the copy on the online version of the story to remove the reference to ‘slitty eyes’, but had not written a correction note:

But people remained unimpressed with the paper. Journalist David Chipakupaku said:

indy100 has approached the Sunday Times for comment.