Dua Lipa criticised for NHS Brit Awards speech after holidaying during lockdown

Dua Lipa has been criticised for calling for a pay rise for frontline workers when she holidayed during the pandemic.

The 25-year-old made a plea to Prime Minister Boris Johnson while accepting her Brit Award for best British female solo artist, saying she would be sharing her trophy with Dame Elizabeth Anionwu, the emeritus professor of nursing at the University of West London.

Dua said that Dame Elizabeth has said there is a ‘massive disparity between gratitude and respect for frontline workers’.

The Physical singer said: ‘It’s very good to clap for them, but we need to pay them.

‘I think what we should do is we should all give a massive, massive round of applause and give Boris a message that we all support a fair pay rise for our frontline.’

The audience – which contained 2,500 key workers – applauded Dua’s words and her speech and call for a raise for key workers were commended on social media.

However, while most people agreed with Dua’s sentiment, others weren’t so keen on Dua being the one to make the statement, due to her jet-setting during the pandemic.

Dua spent the first few months of the pandemic in London, and shared a video to social media urging fans to ‘stay at home’.

However, she flew to St Lucia in July 2020 with her boyfriend Anwar Hadid.

The couple then jetted to New York before moving to Los Angeles in August, enjoying a trip to Palm Springs in California with Friends the following month.

In January 2021, Dua then enjoyed a trip to Mexico, and annoyed followers on social media by posting group pictures with friends and Anwar while at their resort.

Journalist Ben Smoke was among Dua’s critics after the Brits, tweeting: ‘whilst i obviously agree that nhs staff deserve a pay rise + recognition i’m not sure someone who spent the 2nd wave posting pictures of themselves holidaying with their m8s as thousands died + we were all locked inside should be applauded for saying so.’

While Dua was called out on Twitter for her holidays, her speech was equally praised, with viewers of the awards show demanding a pay rise for nurses and other frontline workers.

As well as winning the best British female solo artist award, Dua’s album Future Nostalgia was named the British album of the year, beating Arlo Parks’ Collapsed in Sunbeams, Celeste’s Not Your Muse, J Hus’s Big Conspiracy and Jessie Ware’s What’s Your Pleasure?

The star also treated those at the O2 Arena with a medley from the album, performing Love Again, Physical, Pretty Please, Hallucinate and Don’t Start Now.

Metro.co.uk has contacted Lipa’s rep for comment.

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