An interview between rapper and musician Stormzy and Italian newspaper La Repubblica went viral last weekend.
Upon being asked if Britain is still racist in the item, Stormzy answered: "Yes, 100%". He also accused the Prime Minister of "encouraging hate" with disgusting remarks about Muslim women looking like "letter boxes".
The artist continued: "People are really unaware of it... it's like people are more scared to be branded as a racist than actually tackle whatever racism they do.
"The difficult thing with the UK is, as you said, in Italy it's a clear problem, whereas trying to explain that Britain is a racist country [to a British person] is the most difficult thing ever.
"They think: 'No, it's not. Stormzy you're successful. Look at London, there's loads of black people …' It's a more difficult case to fight."
While some praised the 'Vossi Pop' singer for addressing the issue, others interpreted the comments as meaning that "100% of the UK is racist."
Some publications shared the story with headlines insinuating the latter.
Antonello Guerrera, who conducted the interview at La Repubblica, shared a translation of their exchange to clear up the confusion. He said his was “the original and only reliable source” of Stormzy’s comments.
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— Antonello Guerrera (@antoguerrera) December 22, 2019
Stormzy also took to Twitter to clap back at media outlets for "intentionally spinning" his words.
ITV News has since issued an apology and removed tweets of the story:
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.— ITV News (@itvnews) December 22, 2019