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| Labour MP Neil Coyle suspended over racist comment claim | |
| (32 minutes later) | |
| Neil Coyle is the Labour MP for Bermondsey and Old Southwark, in London | Neil Coyle is the Labour MP for Bermondsey and Old Southwark, in London |
| MP Neil Coyle has been suspended by the Labour Party after allegations he made racist comments. | MP Neil Coyle has been suspended by the Labour Party after allegations he made racist comments. |
| Political journalist Henry Dyer has made a formal complaint to the parliamentary authorities about the MP. | Political journalist Henry Dyer has made a formal complaint to the parliamentary authorities about the MP. |
| Mr Dyer, who is of British-Chinese heritage, says Mr Coyle used racial slurs and made him feel uncomfortable at an incident in a Commons bar. | Mr Dyer, who is of British-Chinese heritage, says Mr Coyle used racial slurs and made him feel uncomfortable at an incident in a Commons bar. |
| Following his suspension, Mr Coyle said he was "very sorry for my insensitive comments". | |
| He said he had "apologised to everyone involved" and would be cooperating with the investigation. | |
| A Labour spokesman said: "The Labour Party expects the highest standards of behaviour from all our MPs and we take allegations of this sort very seriously. | A Labour spokesman said: "The Labour Party expects the highest standards of behaviour from all our MPs and we take allegations of this sort very seriously. |
| "Accordingly the chief whip has now suspended the Labour whip from Neil Coyle pending an investigation." | "Accordingly the chief whip has now suspended the Labour whip from Neil Coyle pending an investigation." |
| Writing on the Business Insider website, Mr Dyer said the MP made a racially insensitive remark during a conversation in the Strangers' Bar about Barry Gardiner, the Labour MP who received funding from a suspected Chinese spy. | |
| 'Tension' | |
| Mr Dyer claims Mr Coyle used a racial stereotype, a comment the journalist says "struck me at the time as not right". | |
| He says he "gently pushed back at Coyle about this" but the MP suggested he was being "over-sensitive". | |
| "I responded by saying that I am British-Chinese, to which Coyle responded that he could tell, "from how you look like you've been giving renminbi [the Chinese currency] to Barry Gardiner." | |
| Mr Dyer says as he left the bar later that evening he waved at Mr Coyle to "defuse the tension" but the MP responded by "putting two fingers up at me". | |
| 'Immediate action' | |
| Later that week, Mr Dyer reported the exchange to the Speaker of the House of Commons, who he said "took immediate action". | |
| The Speaker is understood to be "very concerned" about the incident. | |
| In a statement, the East and South East Asians for Labour group praised Mr Dyer for "speaking out". | |
| "No one should face racism in the workplace especially in Parliament which should be setting the highest example for the rest of the country". | |
| Last week, the Daily Mail reported Mr Coyle had launched an angry expletive-laden anti-Brexit rant in the Strangers' Bar. | |
| Mr Coyle has since been banned from the bars on the parliamentary estate for six months. |