LABOUR’S Barry Gardiner says his fellow party MPs should steer away from “personalising” political attacks on the Tories

LABOUR’S Barry Gardiner says his fellow party MPs should steer away from “personalising” political attacks on the Tories.

The veteran MP was speaking in the aftermath of a decision by the party to remove the whip from Rupa Huq after she apologised to Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng for describing him as “superficially” black.

Speaking to GB News today Mr Gardiner said: “I would never prejudge an inquiry. What I would say is that you should always attack the Conservative Party on its policies. You should never attack anybody on anything other than their policies. You should not personalise politics. It’s possible actually to respect the person but disagree with their politics. And I think that’s the only way that politicians should behave.”

Ms Huq has been suspended from sitting as a Labour MP, pending an investigation.

Leader Sir Keir Starmer called the remarks “racist” and said he took “swift action”.
He declined to comment on whether she should be sacked from the party, saying its investigation should now “take its course”.

He added: “It’s not for me to tell that independent process what they should do.
The Ealing Central and Acton MP, who will now sit in Parliament as an independent, was recorded making the comments on Monday evening at a fringe event entitled What’s Next for Labour’s Agenda on Race.

The audio clip was published by the Guido Fawkes website minutes before Sir Keir Starmer began his speech to the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool.

During a Q&A session, she said: “He’s superficially, he’s, a black man but again he’s got more in common… he went to Eton, he went to a very expensive prep school, all the way through top schools in the country.
“If you hear him on the Today programme you wouldn’t know he’s black.”

Following the publication of the clip on Tuesday, Ms Huq tweeted: “I have today contacted Kwasi Kwarteng to offer my sincere and heartfelt apologies for the comments I made at yesterday’s Labour conference fringe meeting.

“My comments were ill-judged and I wholeheartedly apologise to anyone affected.”