Reform’s Lee Anderson hit out at a Labour MP after she shared a tweet describing Kemi Badenoch as representing “white supremacy in blackface”.
Dawn Butler retweeted a post from Nigerian-British author Nels Abbey which branded Ms Badenoch’s election as the new Tory leader as a “victory for racism”.
The Brent East MP went on to delete the repost which offered “tips for surviving the immediate surge of Badenochism (i.e. white supremacy in blackface)”.
Mr Anderson referred to a letter Ms Butler wrote when he was at the centre of an Islamophobia row over comments made about Sadiq Khan.
The Reform MP, who represents Ashfield, wrote on X: “Remember This? You called for the whip to be removed from me over Islamaphobic comments yet your Govt has no definition of Islamaphobia. What have you been up to lately?”
Ms Butler has also been strongly criticised by Conservative figures, with several calling for her to lose the Labour whip.
Ben Obese-Jecty, who was elected as MP for Huntingdon in July, said Ms Butler was “not alone on the Government benches in holding this view of Kemi”.
He said: “This will be a test to see whether Keir Starmer removes the whip, or effectively condones Butler’s abhorrent approval of this smear.”
Former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng told GB News: “On a personal level I’ve always got on with her, but her race-baiting is completely crazy.
“And you can imagine that if Kemi had lost, she’d have said exactly the same thing. She’d have said ‘of course Kemi lost, because the Tories are racist and Britain is racist’…
“In their logic, they put everything through the prism of race-baiting and divisiveness.
“I genuinely think that given what she said, she should have the whip removed from her.
“There should be some discipline and some disciplinary measure against this kind of really hateful divisiveness.”
But on Sunday night Labour showed no signs of removing the whip from Ms Butler.
Other Labour figures, including Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Foreign Secretary David Lammy, hailed Ms Badenoch’s election as the first black leader of a major UK party as a historic moment.
