Journalist Ash Sarkar has made headlines after calling the Royal Family a “cartel of some very weird people”.
She made the divisive comments during a BBC Newsnight debate after a poll revealed that four out of ten Gen Z individuals supported abolishing the Crown.
Sarkar said that young people wanted “values of fairness and representation”, which was why they felt turned off by the monarchy.
She added: “Whatever way you slice it, the monarchy is neither a fair nor representative institution. There have been attempts by the Royal Family to strip themselves of some of the mystery, invite the media in, and show the public what they really do. And what they’ve revealed themselves to be is a cartel of some very weird people.”
But, who exactly is Ash Sarkar? Here is everything we know.
‘Whatever way you slice it, the monarchy is neither a fair nor representative institution’
— BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) May 2, 2023
Journalist Ash Sarkar says she believes the royal family have revealed themselves to be a ‘cartel of some very weird people’https://t.co/P0zxS1DNGF pic.twitter.com/3onmEh5lMf
Who is Ash Sarkar?
Ash Sarkar is the Senior Editor of Novara Media, a left-wing alternative media organisation in the UK. The independent news outlet was founded in 2011 by James Butler and Aaron Bastani, who met during the UK tuition fee protests.
Ms Sarkar also contributes to national newspapers like The Guardian and The Independent, and appears on panel shows.
On top of that, she also teaches classes at the Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam.
In July 2021, the reporter revealed that her debut book entitled Minority Rule would be published by Bloomsbury.
She is the great-great-niece of Pritilata Waddedar, an East Bengali revolutionary nationalist who was influential during the Indian independence movement.
The London native completed her undergraduate and master’s degrees in English Literature at University College London.
On her Instagram account, which has 85,000 followers, she describes herself as: “Anarcho-Fabulous. Luxury Communist. Walks like a supermodel. Kebab aficionado.”
In March 2021, Sunday Telegraph’s Julie Burchill was ordered to pay “substantial damages” to Sarkar after alleging that the journalist sympathised with fundamentalist Islam. Burchill also wrote a sexual poem about the journalist that included a description of “a gender fluid threesome with Marine Le Pen”.
Following the defamation case, Burchill later released an apology statement in which she said: “I should not have sent these tweets, some of which included racist and misogynist comments regarding Ms Sarkar’s appearance and her sex life.”
What else has Ash Sarkar said about the Royal Family?
The BBC Newsnight comments weren’t the first time Sarkar was publicly critical of the Royal Family.
In 2018, she appeared on Good Morning Britain and demanded that the national anthem, which was God Save The Queen, should be replaced by a “grime banger” by the artist Wiley.
And, earlier this year while on BBC Question Time, she said the Royal family was a “hideous cartel”.
