ITV apologises for the way it covered the grime star’s comments, in which he said he believed ‘100%’ there was racism in Britain

Stormzy has hit out at media outlets he accused of “intentionally spinning my words for some click bait” after comments he made in an interview about racism in the UK were misrepresented by various publications.

The grime artist gave an interview to the Italian newspaper La Repubblica last week in which he was asked if Britain was still racist, to which he replied: “definitely, 100%” even if such racism was “hidden”.

The quote was used in headlines and articles by outlets including ITV and several news websites to suggest that Stormzy had said the UK was 100% racist, rather than that he 100% believed there was racism in the country.

Stormzy: UK is 'definitely racist' and Johnson has made it worse Read more

After the negative coverage, Stormzy, who has just released his second album, Heavy is the Head, tweeted that those media outlets who he believed had deliberately misrepresented him can “suck my dick”.

HEAVY IS THE HEAD (@stormzy) All you publications and media outlets that are intentionally spinning my words for some click bait can suck my dick and please don’t try beg it in the future

In response to the coverage of his comments, people responded on Twitter by imagining what news outlets might have reported if Stormzy had given the answer “Definitely, 100%” in response to other questions.

JAYR-AB 🇬🇾 (@S7HMIDT) "Stormzy, Is there rice in the UK?"



Stormzy: "Definitely, 100%."



ITV news: "BREAKING: The UK is 100% rice."

ITV apologised for the way it had covered the story, saying that while it had included Stormzy’s full response to the question on their website, its headline and a tweet about the story misrepresented what he had said.

“On Saturday we reported on an interview by an Italian newspaper with the British rapper Stormzy in which the subject of racism was discussed,” tweeted ITV news.

“[His] response was reproduced in full on our website. Despite this, it was felt the headline at the top of this story on our website and Twitter post did not reflect these comments fully and was therefore amended. The tweet regarding the quotes was also later removed. We would like to apologise to Stormzy for any misunderstanding.”

The Italian journalist who did the interview with Stormzy tweeted the transcript of the interview, which he urged people to read, saying it was “the original and only reliable source” of Stormzy’s comments.

Antonello Guerrera (@antoguerrera) Ps. Afterwards, during my interview with him, #Stormzy elaborated his opinion on racism in Britain and he expressed his negative remarks about PM Johnson.

So, to have the full picture, please read my full transcript below, which is the original and only reliable source of it. pic.twitter.com/uoM9370V7R

In the interview, Stormzy also said racism has worsened under Boris Johnson, saying the prime minister was a “figurehead” whose actions had made it more acceptable to say racist things in British society.

“If the top person can openly say this racist thing – the ‘piccaninnies’ remarks, ‘watermelon smiles’, comparing Muslim women to a letter box – if that is our figurehead, the top man, the leader we have to follow, and he openly says these things, he encourages hate among others.”

Former England footballer, Gary Neville, also raised the influence of politicians in normalising racism during a discussion on Sky Sports on Sunday night.

Speaking about allegations of racist chants during Chelsea’s game against Tottenham Hotspur, Neville said: “We’ve just had a general election in this country where both main parties and the leaders of both main parties are accused, constantly over the last month, of fuelling racism and accepting racism within their parties. We’re not talking about it at a micro level, we are talking about it at … the highest level in the country.”