James Cleverly rebuffs Australian foreign minister over UK’s colonial past jibe

Foreign secretary rejects Penny Wong’s reference to ‘British colonists’ in speech at King’s College about her descendants

The UK foreign secretary, James Cleverly, has rejected suggestions Britain needed to do more to confront its colonial past, pointing out that he was a black foreign secretary in the UK.

He was responding to questions after a speech by the Australian foreign minister Penny Wong in which she said Britain needed to reflect on its past while on a visit to London earlier this week.