A LABOUR MP who was suspended after using “abusive language with racial overtones” towards a journalist went on to charge taxpayers for equality training.
Neil Coyle, who rejoined Keir Starmer’s party after having the whip restored earlier this year, claimed £295 in expenses for the course, as first reported by The Independent.
The MP for Bermondsey and Old Southwark was suspended from Labour last year following an incident in a Commons bar during which he was said to have made Sinophobic comments towards political journalist Henry Dyer.
Coyle went on to put an equality training course in January 2023 on expenses, it has emerged.
Labour MP Kim Johnson told The Independent it was “an outrage for Neil Coyle to charge the taxpayer in his attempt to atone for his racist and abusive behaviour” and called on Starmer to “seriously reconsider removing the whip again”.
Labour declined to comment.
Coyle was suspended from the Commons for five days earlier this year after being found to have breached Parliament’s harassment rules over the original incident.
He used “abusive language with racial overtones” towards Dyer as well as separately directing “foul-mouthed and drunken abuse” towards another MP’s assistant, according to the Independent Expert Panel, which examines complaints against MPs.
In the incident involving Dyer, Coyle and a group including the reporter were discussing Labour MP Barry Gardiner, who received donations from a woman later revealed by MI5 to be a Chinese spy.
Coyle suggested his colleague was being paid by “Fu Manchu”, a fictional Chinese “supervillain”, before Dyer explained that he is British-Chinese.
Coyle then told the journalist that he could tell from how he looked that he had been giving renminbi, the Chinese currency, to Gardiner.
Later, leaving the bar, Dyer sought to defuse the situation by waving goodbye to Coyle. The MP was found to have put two fingers up at the reporter in response.
Coyle was reinstated as a Labour MP in May, with opposition chief whip Alan Campbell telling him that “drinking does not in any way excuse his behaviour” but that the party recognised his efforts to address his problematic conduct.
A Parliamentary Labour Party committee meeting heard that Coyle had undertaken two programmes regarding managing alcohol since his suspension and had stopped drinking entirely.
In an apology in the Commons, he said he was “ashamed” of his behaviour and said the intervention had “quite possibly saved my life” by compelling him to stop drinking.
“I wish to specifically apologise to the two complainants who were subject to my drunk and offensive behaviour and attitude,” he said.
“I cannot apologise enough for the harm and upset caused, and I’m ashamed of my conduct frankly. It should not have happened.”
Coyle has been contacted for comment
