Former Sun editor David Yelland, who co-presents BBC Radio 4 podcast When It Hits The Fan, was mocked online after appearing to confuse two black Conservative politicians, Sir James Cleverly and Kwasi Kwarteng, in a social media post. Yelland shared an article about Cleverly's decision to quit as the Tories' housing spokesman to run for London mayor, wrongly describing him as "Liz Truss' Brexit Chancellor" — a role actually held by Kwarteng, not Cleverly, who was in fact Truss's foreign secretary. The mix-up prompted accusations of racial insensitivity and drew public mockery, including from Cleverly himself.

Critics on X, including a Reform UK member, a Tory peer and broadcaster Andrew Neil, piled in, with one calling Yelland "a buffoon". Cleverly responded directly, telling Yelland "I'm the other black one." Yelland admitted a "stupid error" but denied confusing the two men, insisting he had only mixed up their job titles and had corrected and apologised swiftly. Kwarteng, whose parents came to the UK from Ghana, served as Chancellor during Truss's ill-fated 2022 mini-budget, while Cleverly, born to a Sierra Leonean mother and English father, was foreign secretary at the time.