The musician Soweto Kinch has spoken of how he was not allowed into a first-class train carriage, despite carrying the right ticket, as he discussed racism in Britain following the treatment of Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex.

The jazz saxophonist was asked about Stormzy’s recent interview on the New York radio station Hot 97 during his US tour in which he addressed what he described as the racist treatment of the duchess.

Speaking on Robert Peston’s programme, which follows ITV’s News at Ten, Kinch, said. “It’s tiring. Just on my way down to the studio today I was not allowed on to a first-class train carriage with a first-class ticket … And if I kick off about it, then I’m aggressive and I’m, you know, and it’s kind of this tacit acceptance, everybody knows what’s going on.”

Peston asked: “So what happened?”

Kinch said: “What happened was that he [the guard] decided there weren’t enough seats within this first-class carriage, even though I had filmed four seats perfectly available. And rather than just rushing to social media in a rage, I thought, ‘OK let me just observe what this is here.’

“Because I’ll be at fault for pointing out what is the obvious thing here, somebody is obviously frustrated, bullying and wants to take it out on the black guy. It’s something that is continual and rather than the energy being focused into justice, or restoring an imbalance, it’s, ‘Do I have to prove to you that this was the motivation?’ This was racism. Is it racism, or isn’t it racism? And it’s particularly emotionally exhausting.”

Stormzy had previously said the duchess seemed “lovely” and that “they just hate her”.

Peston (@itvpeston) .@sowetokinch says he agrees with @Stormzy’s recent comments about racism in Britain and shares a story of a racist incident from his train journey to the studio today. #Peston pic.twitter.com/ENHggzahBg

The 26-year-old rapper responded to the This Morning presenter Eamonn Holmes, who recently received a backlash for describing Meghan as “uppity”, “manipulative” and “spoilt”.



Stormzy said: “Bro, she’s black, that’s who you’re talking about.”

Kinch has spoken publicly about alleged racism before, including an incident he documented on social media this year when he was refused service in a pizzeria.

He has also faced criticism for comments he made in response to the treatment of the former Momentum activist Jackie Walker, who was expelled from the Labour party for misconduct, in one of the longest-running high-profile cases of the party’s antisemitism crisis.

In an interview with the Guardian in November, he told of another incident. “On the train down to London today I was asleep and this white guy wakes me up to sit down next to me, despite there being loads of empty seats in the carriage,” he said.

“He just kept elbowing me really aggressively, like he wanted a confrontation. I politely told him to stop, but of course no one else stood up for me – in fact, one person even came to his defence and said it was me that had to leave.

“The one thing these people want is to silence us and that isn’t something I will give in to.”

• This article was amended on 17 January 2020 to give a more precise description of Jackie Walker’s expulsion from the Labour party.