Amol Rajan Asks Minister If Labour Is Now The 'Nasty Party' After 'Horrific' WhatsApp Scandal
Two Labour MPs have been suspended after making offensive remarks in a messaging group.
BBC Radio 4 presenter Amol Rajan put a minister on the spot today by asking if Labour was now the “nasty party” after the recent WhatsApp scandal.
The government sacked health minister Andrew Gwynne over the weekend after the Mail on Sunday found he had posted offensive messages, including one where he said he hoped an elderly voter died.
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Gwynne has been suspended from the party while an investigation is carried out.
Backbencher Oliver Ryan has also lost the Labour whip for appearing to mock another MP over his sexuality in the same WhatsApp group.
While interviewing skills minister Baroness Jacqui Smith on BBC Radio 4′s Today programme, Rajan listed a few of the recent scandals to hit Labour – and suggested it might now deserve a new nickname.
“Many of your colleagues are sending pretty horrific messages on WhatsApp,” he began. “So far, we know we know about racist jokes about Diane Abbott, who happens to be Black, we know about a dollop of antisemitism, too.”
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Abbott, a Labour veteran, accused Keir Starmer of treating her like a “non-person” after a Tory donor said she “should be shot” last year.
Labour came under scrutiny in 2020 after the UK’s human rights watchdog found the party was responsible for “unlawful” acts of harassment and discrimination amid a wave of anti-Semitism complaints.
Rajan continued: “Isn’t the horrific picture that’s emerging from these WhatsApp messages one wherein the Labour Party is the nasty party now?”
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Theresa May made the “nasty party” a common term when she told her fellow Tories that’s how the public saw them in 2002.
But Smith replied: “I don’t accept that.”
Rajan cut in: “Well they’re pretty nasty messages and they come from a lot of Labour figures.”
“I completely agree they are completely unacceptable,” she said, before pointing out that Gwynne was sacked over the remarks and another MP was removed from Labour Party membership and lost the whip.
“Nobody, whatever party they’re in, whatever job they’re in, should be saying those sorts of things about other people,” she continued.
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“What is in stark contrast to what we’ve seen previously is a prime minister who has acted quickly to demonstrate that those things are unacceptable and to take action against those people who did them.”
Gwynne and Ryan are both still MPs right now but have to sit as independents.
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