A minister has insisted it is up to voters whether two MPs who belonged to a WhatsApp group which contained offensive messages should remain in Parliament.
Education Minister Baroness Jacqui Smith of Malvern said it is up to constituents to decide on whether they should be MPs after losing the Labour whip.
Former Health Minister Andrew Gwynne was sacked after reportedly saying he hoped a 72-year-old woman would soon die after she asked a councillor about bin collections, and joked about a constituent being “mown down” by a truck.
While Oliver Ryan MP, who was elected to his Burnley seat last summer, was administratively suspended from the party on Monday.
Asked whether Mr Gwynne and Mr Ryan should remain as MPs after having the Labour whip suspended, Lady Smith said: “In the end, obviously it’s up to their constituents as to whether or not they remain as MPs.
“But the important point here is the things that the Prime Minister could control, he took action on.”
Lady Smith, a former MP who served as home secretary, described the WhatsApp remarks as “terrible things to say for anybody, and they’re terrible things for an MP or a minister to say”.
It has been claimed that Labour officials were repeatedly warned about a WhatsApp group containing offensive messages made by a former minister before they were made public.
Gerald Cooney, the former Labour leader of Tameside council in Greater Manchester, said he raised concerns about Andrew Gwynne’s remarks several times in the past year.
Labour sources said no formal complaint had been received about the WhatsApp group.
On Sunday, Mr Ryan posted a statement on X saying some of the comments made in the group were “completely unacceptable, and I fully condemn them”.
Mr Gwynne apologised on Saturday for “any offence I’ve caused” and expressed regret over the remarks, but did not suggest he would stand down as an MP.
Meanwhile in the hours following Ashely Dalton’s appointment as the new health minister, the MP’s views on self-identification emerged, with tweets dating back to 2016 revealing her belief that people should be allowed to identify as llamas.
Asked whether the views of Mr Gwynne’s replacement on gender self-identification reflected Government policy, Lady Smith replied: “I don’t agree with them, but what’s important about Ashley Dalton is, we can go back over everybody’s statements over the last few years, but Ashley Dalton is recovering from her second bout of breast cancer.
“She will be, I think, a brilliant advocate for people with cancer and for public health campaigns, and that’s what she’s bringing to this Government.”