Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top lawyer says sacked royal aide Lady Susan Hussey asked him about his 'heritage'

Lady Hussey resigned on Wednesday after being embroiled in a race row

Top lawyer says sacked royal aide Lady Susan Hussey asked him about his 'heritage'

An eminent solicitor with Pakistani ancestry has said Lady Susan Hussey enquired him about his heritage at a Buckingham event where Ngozi Fulani, the UK-born founder of a charity, was repeatedly quizzed about her origins.

Lady Hussey, who had served the late Queen Elizabeth for six decades as a lady-in-waiting, left her honorary duties at the Palace on Wednesday after her controversial conversation with Fulani became public.

Nazir Afzal, a former chief crown prosecutor for the North West, said he also attended the reception where the royal aide asked him about his heritage.

He tweeted: "I was at the Buckingham Palace reception at which Lady Hussey questioned the heritage of a brilliant DV (domestic violence) expert Ngozi Fulani.”

“She only asked me my heritage once & seemed to accept my answer - Manchester currently! Racism is never far away tho," Afzal, whose parents emigrated to the UK from Pakistan, wrote in the post.


As the controversy over the conversation between Lady Hussey and Fulani raged, a spokesperson for Prince William clarified that "racism has no place in our society.”

Fulani said Lady Hussey’s questions about her origins sounded like “an interrogation”.

She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme, “I guess the only way I can explain it, she's determined: 'Where are you from? Where are your people from?'"

The charity campaigner said she tried to give the 83-year-old courtier the benefit of the doubt when the quizzing began.

"But it soon dawned on me very quickly that this was nothing to do with her capacity to understand," Fulani, who works for survivors of domestic abuse, said on Thursday.

While the palace said its staff reached out to her, she said she was not contacted since the row broke out.

“People keep saying the palace has reached out to me. Nobody has reached out to me," she told ITV's Good Morning Britain programme.

Asked if she was contacted through her charity Sistah Space, she categorically said, "No”.

“I don't know where this has come from, but I'm telling you categorically - we have not heard from the palace," Fulani said.

More For You

Modi arrives in Saudi Arabia to strengthen strategic ties

Prime minister Narendra Modi during his visit to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday (22)

Modi arrives in Saudi Arabia to strengthen strategic ties

INDIA’S prime minister Narendra Modi arrived in Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah on Tuesday (22) for his third visit as prime minister to the oil-rich Gulf kingdom.

The trip came a day after Modi held talks with US vice-president JD Vance in India, with New Delhi looking to seal a trade deal with Washington and stave off punishing tariffs.

Keep ReadingShow less
Veterans urge nation to 'unite and remember' in VE Day letter

Samina Mahroof, a cutter at the JW Plant Flag Company works on flag orders ahead of the VE Day 80th anniversary on March 18, 2025 in Leeds, England. (Photo by Ian Forsyth/Getty Images)

Veterans urge nation to 'unite and remember' in VE Day letter

TEN surviving Second World War veterans, including three from the British Indian Army, have written an open letter urging people across the UK to come together and remember the sacrifices made during the war.

Launched on Wednesday (23) by the /Together Coalition, the letter is part of a wider campaign marking the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe (VE) Day, which falls on May 5.

Keep ReadingShow less
Vinay Narwal

Lieutenant Vinay Narwal of the Indian Navy, 26, from Haryana, was among those killed in the attack in Kashmir's Pahalgam.

Photo: X/@indiannavy

Navy officer on honeymoon, grandfather vacationing with grandkids among 26 killed in Kashmir attack

LIEUTENANT Vinay Narwal of the Indian Navy had been married just six days earlier. He was on his honeymoon in Pahalgam when he was shot in the head by a terrorist while eating bhelpuri with his wife.

Manjunatha, a tourist from Karnataka, was asked if he was Hindu or Muslim before being shot dead.

Keep ReadingShow less
Who is Saifullah Kasuri, the  mastermind behind Pahalgam attack?

Saifullah Kasuri

Who is Saifullah Kasuri, the  mastermind behind Pahalgam attack?

THE tourist town of Pahalgam in India's Jammu and Kashmir witnessed one of the worst terror attacks in the region on Tuesday (22) since the abrogation of Article 370. A group of heavily armed terrorists opened fire on unsuspecting tourists at Baisaran meadow, killing 26 people and injuring many more.

The attack sent shockwaves across the country and drew condemnation from leaders both in India and abroad. Within hours, a group known as The Resistance Front (TRF), widely believed to be a proxy of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), claimed responsibility.

Keep ReadingShow less
Hertfordshire Police treat vandalism of Muslim graves as Islamophobic hate crime

The damage to plaques at Carpenders Park Cemetery has sparked outrage in the Muslim community

Hertfordshire Police treat vandalism of Muslim graves as Islamophobic hate crime

Grant Williams

HERTFORDSHIRE Police have said they are “confident” the desecration of Muslim graves at a cemetery in north London “was a religiously motivated act”.

The leader of the council that owns the cemetery visited the site last week to speak to grieving families following the horrific incident.

Keep ReadingShow less