Sir Keir Starmer has come under pressure to suspend Dawn Butler after she shared a tweet describing Kemi Badenoch as representing “white supremacy in blackface”.
The Labour MP 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”.
Ms Butler went on to delete the retweet which offered “tips for surviving the immediate surge of Badenochism (i.e. white supremacy in blackface)”.
But the Prime Minister is facing calls to remove the Labour whip from the Brent East MP.
Tory MP en Obese-Jecty 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 Conservative chancellor Kawsi 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.”
Nadhim Zahawi, a former Tory chancellor, shared two posts on X calling Ms Butler’s comments “vicious” and “shameful”.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said she strongly disagrees with the tweet that Ms Butler reposted.
Pressed on why no action had been taken against Ms Butler, she said: “As I said, I haven’t seen the post and I think those sorts of issues around party issues, those are always ones for the Whip.”
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Foreign Secretary David Lammy were among other Labour figures who hailed Ms Badenoch’s election on Saturday as the first black leader of a major UK party as a historic moment.
