Sir Keir Starmer faced a growing storm over London Labour MP Dawn Butler appearing to share a tweet describing Kemi Badenoch as a “member of white supremacy’s black collaborator class”.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper described as “appalling” the description of Ms Badenoch becoming Tory leader as a “Blackface of white supremacy has broken the glass ceiling for all Black people”.
But she said she did not know if Brent East MP Ms Butler had shared the original tweet, or Twitter thread, posted by Nigerian-British author Nels Abbey, based in London, entitled: “Warning: Seven Rules for Surviving A Kemi Badenoch Victory”.
Mr Abbey suggested that that the London MP had retweeted his post.
The London MP is reported to have swiftly taken it down.
Asked about the row, Ms Cooper said: “I didn’t see the post.
“I clearly strongly disagree with that.
“The Prime Minister congratulated Kemi Badenoch on her election to be leader of the Conservative Party.
“Everybody across the country should welcome seeing a black woman becoming...”
Presenter Nick Ferrari intervened to ask why Ms Butler had not been suspended.
Ms Cooper stressed that this was a matter for the party whips.
She added: “I think it’s right to congratulate Kemi Badenoch on her election and whilst there will be all sorts of issues that we will disagree on it’s great for people right across the country, for young children growing up, to be able to see that glass ceilings are continuing to be smashed...”
But pressed whether a “Black face of white supremacy has broken the glass ceiling for all Black people” was a racist statement, Ms Cooper emphasised: “I strong disagree with that statement that you have just read out.
“I haven’t seen the post so I don’t know about the detail.
“The words that you have read out are clearly appalling and I would strongly disagree with them.”
Ben Obese-Jecty, who was elected as MP for Huntingdon in July, said: “This will be a test to see whether Keir Starmer removes the whip, or effectively condones Butler’s abhorrent approval of this smear.”
Labour was on Sunday night showing no signs of removing the whip from Ms Butler.
Sir Keir has previously suspended the whip from Labour MPs in response to comments about senior black Conservative politicians.
In 2022, he suspended Rupa Huq from the party for describing then-chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng as “superficially” black. Ms Huq apologised and had the whip restored six months later.
Other Labour figures, including Sir Keir and Foreign Secretary David Lammy, hailed Ms Badenoch’s election as the first black leader of a major UK party as a historic moment.
In later posts, Mr Abbey said his original comments had been “clearly satirical” and “intended as a sketch”, but defended Ms Butler saying she “may not welcome the ascendancy of an extremely right-wing reactionary black person”.
