Labour MP Neil Coyle has been suspended by the Labour Party after allegations he made racist comments.
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.
Political journalist Henry Dyer has made a formal complaint to the parliamentary authorities about the Labour MP Neil Coyle.
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.
Labour MP Neil Coyle – A racist in parliament
Mr Dyer later confirmed Mr Coyle had “offered his apologies for his inappropriate actions… and reiterated that he will be complying with the Labour Party’s 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.
Last week, WTX News 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.
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How racist was the exchange?
Mr Dyer claims Labour MP Neil 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”.
Chair of the Home Affairs Committee, and Labour MP, Diana Johnson said Mr Coyle’s comments were “totally unacceptable”.
“No one should face racism in the workplace especially in Parliament which should be setting the highest example for the rest of the country”.
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