Labour MP has whip suspended over 'racist comments to journalist'

Neil Coyle MP has Labour whip suspended over claims he made racist comments to journalist on Parliamentary estate

• Labour announced whip has been suspended from Neil Coyle pending a probe
• Allegations the MP made racist remark to journalist in Strangers’ Bar last week
• Commons and Lords authorities have banned Mr Coyle from bars for six months  

Labour dramatically suspended the whip from MP Neil Coyle today after allegations he made racist comments to a journalist at Parliament.

The party announced the suspension of Bermondsey & Old Southwark MP pending an investigation, saying it takes such allegations ‘very seriously’.

The news comes after claims of clashes in the Strangers’ Bar at Parliament last week.  

Henry Dyer, a political journalist for Insider, has said Mr Coyle made disparaging remarks about his British-Chinese heritage during a conversation on February 1.

Mr Coyle has been approached for comment and is expected to make a statement on the allegation.  

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.’  

Labour has suspended the whip from MP Neil Coyle (pictured) after allegations he made racist comments to a journalist at Parliament

Mr Coyle has been suspended from House of Commons bars after the claims and a separate episode the previous day when he allegedly launched a foul-mouthed anti-Brexit rant in Westminster’s famous Strangers’ Bar.

It is understood that after Speaker Lindsay Hoyle became aware of Mr Dyer’s allegations, he convened a meeting with the Serjeant at Arms who ordered that Mr Coyle should be suspended from bars in the Commons for six months.

Authorities in the House of Lords are believed to have taken similar action.

Mr Dyer, who is British-Chinese, said he came into contact with Mr Coyle in Strangers’ Bar on the evening of Tuesday February 1, after going for Chinese New Year dinner with his family.

He accused the MP of making Sinophobic remarks, which he said made him feel uncomfortable.

Mr Dyer said that Mr Coyle came to speak to him and a group of other journalists on the Tuesday, and the conversation turned to fellow Labour MP Barry Gardiner, after he it emerged he had unwittingly received funding from a Chinese spy.

Mr Coyle allegedly made a remark that Mr Gardiner had been in the pay of ‘Fu Manchu’.

Mr Dyer said the comment ‘struck me at the time as not right, given it had been well reported who had been giving Gardiner money, and so there was no need to refer to a 20th Century trope of a Chinese supervillain’.

In an account posted online, the journalist said that when he ‘gently pushed back’ Mr Coyle suggested he was being ‘over-sensitive’, before ‘saying that he would apologise if he had said something bad and it wasn’t just me being sensitive, which I believe was insincere’. 

‘He then said that he had relatives of Chinese descent.

‘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 claimed he had also witnessed Mr Coyle ‘angrily shouting at a Labour staffer’ in the bar the previous evening.

The journalist said he informed the Speaker on the morning of Thursday February 3 what had happened.

‘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,’ he said.

The House of Commons declined to comment. Mr Coyle has been approached for comment.

In the January 31 incident, Mr Coyle was accused of bawling ‘f**k you’ at a Labour aide who insisted that Brexit had worked out ‘fine’ for the UK.

When a Tory MP tried to intervene to calm the row, Mr Coyle allegedly replied: ‘F**k off and lose some weight.’

The row erupted on the very first day of the reopening of Strangers’ – Westminster’s famous Thames-side watering hole – for MPs and staffers after it was closed during the Covid pandemic.

Witnesses said the MP erupted after the researcher, who works for another Labour MP, suggested that Brexit had not been a disaster for Britain.

The aide is said to have added that Labour could have been spared its disastrous 2019 General Election –where it argued for a second referendum – if only it had taken a different position.

Mr Coyle then allegedly startled everyone in the bar by yelling: ‘F**k you! What are the benefits of Brexit?’

He was also said to have shouted: ‘Are you f**king insane?’

And when a backbench Tory MP attempted to defuse the row, Mr Coyle is said to have retorted with ‘f**k off’ , followed by a dig at the MP’s weight.

Cabinet minister Therese Coffey jibed at Neil Coyle over his conduct at a committee hearing last week after they clashed over benefit payments.

In an exchange, Mr Coyle told the Work and Pensions Secretary it was ‘really disappointing that you’ve turned up and been unable to answer so many questions’, after she asked to come back to the committee about a question on ‘yellow card’ sanctions for those on benefits.

Offering a defence, Ms Coffey said she either did not recall some details or was being asked about other departmental briefs.

Mr Coyle followed up by asking: ‘There was a rumour the Secretary of State is going to resign. Is that the reason you can’t answer any questions today, because you’ve got one foot out the door?’

The Cabinet minister sharply replied: ‘No, don’t be ridiculous Neil. If you want to bring up gossip, I could bring up other stuff that happened downstairs. I don’t think that’s appropriate for this select committee, thank-you.’ 

The Cabinet minister sharply replied: ‘No, don’t be ridiculous Neil. If you want to bring up gossip, I could bring up other stuff that happened downstairs. I don’t think that’s appropriate for this select committee, thank-you.’

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