The speaker of the House of Commons rebuked a Conservative MP after he used the word J*** in parliament to refer to the Japanese.
Speaker Hoyle said the term, which was described by one Labour MP as an “outdated and crass racial slur”, “should not be used”.
The row erupted just days after a Tory minister was criticised for using the phrase “little man” in relation to China.
The comment was made by Mark Francois, a former Armed Forces minister, during questions to the defence secretary Ben Wallace.
Labour’s Sarah Owen attacked the use of “ethnic slurs” and what she told MPs was an “unacceptable undercurrent of othering”.
Naomi Smith, chief executive of internationalist campaign group, Best for Britain said: “Mark Francois may like to pretend he’s fighting WW2 but there is no excuse for this or the failure of the Defence Secretary to call him out for it.
“The people of the UK can now see through this tired act of xenophobia dressed up as faux patriotism which has done nothing except heap economic pain on our country and emboldened some of the most vile elements in our society.”
On Monday Mr Francois asked Mr Wallace and the Type 26 frigate, which he said was “literally a world-beating design, which we have exported to both Canada and Australia, and we all want to see it in service as soon as possible.”
He added: “So it is doubly disappointing that, last week, the Department issued a written ministerial statement to say her entry into service is now delayed a further year from October 2027 to October 2028 and the lifetime cost to the programme will be over a quarter of a billion pounds more of taxpayers’ money. Given the defence budget is likely to come under great pressure, why does it take BAE Systems 11 years to build a ship the J*** can build in four?”
On Tuesday Ms Owen, who is Asian, said in the chamber of the Commons: “Mr Speaker, you rightly and regularly remind us to use respectful language in this House.
“But unfortunately this outdated and crass racial slur has fallen well below the bar we should expect.”
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