Labour suspends Neil Coyle’s whip over racism allegations
The Labour party has suspended Neil Coyle, MP for Bermondsey and Old Southwark, as a result of racism allegations.
“The Labour Party expects the highest standards of behaviour from all our MPs and we take allegations of this sort very seriously,” said party spokesperson. “Accordingly the Chief Whip has has now suspended the Labour whip from Neil Coyle pending an investigation.”
Coyle was banned yesterday from parliamentary bars after he allegedly made racist remarks to British-Chinese journalist Henry Dyer at a Commons bar.
Dyer, an Insider journalist, said that on 1 February Coyle had used Sinophobic slurs while talking to him, making him uncomfortable in his place of work. Two days later, the journalist informed Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle, who initially opted for the six month suspension.
“The Speaker and his staff took immediate action, in conjunction with the Serjeant at Arms and the House of Lords’ authorities, to suspend Coyle from the bars on the Parliamentary estate pending an investigation by the Labour Whips office into the incidents on Monday and Tuesday evening,” Dyer wrote in a piece for Insider.
The MP’s apology didn’t taken long to arrive. “I’m very sorry for my insensitive comments, have apologised to everyone involved and will be cooperating fully with the investigation,” he said.