MP Diane Abbott has prompted outrage by tweeting that migrants had “indeed f***ed off” – to the bottom of the sea, as she posted about a shipwreck in which 41 people died.
The former shadow home secretary later deleted her tweet, which was a reference to Tory MP Lee Anderson’s use of the f word about migrants.
But it prompted indignation on social media, and some commentators called for Ms Abbott to face sanctions. Her tweet was branded “obscene” and “revolting”.
Rishi Sunak has backed his deputy party chairman Mr Anderson, who said migrants who do not want to live on a barge should “f*** off back to France”.
However, the prime minister’s decision has divided the Conservatives, some warning him against turning the Tories into the “even nastier party” and a lurch to the right.
Mr Anderson has refused to apologise for his incendiary comments, made after a group of 20 migrants were granted a last-minute reprieve as the first group boarded the Bibby Stockholm barge in Dorset.
Alex Chalk, the justice secretary, said while the MP’s language was “salty”, his indignation was well placed and his comments were “not bigotry at all”.
No 10 said the cabinet minister had been speaking for the government when he backed Mr Anderson.
But Dominic Grieve, the ex-attorney general who was a Conservative MP for more than two decades, told The Independent that “such foul language” would turn off floating voters and risked “making the Tories the even nastier party”.
Ms Abbott, who in April was suspended from the Labour Party after suggesting Jewish people do not face racism, had been quote-tweeting a BBC news story on a shipwreck in the central Mediterranean, in which 41 people are thought to have died.
“These migrants have indeed f***ed off. To the bottom of the sea,” she wrote. It’s thought she had been trying to mock Mr Anderson’s attitude.
Some people who did not remember that she had already been suspended from the Labour Party called for her to be suspended or sacked.
A separate row on immigration has emerged after Mr Anderson claimed that the party had “failed” on the subject. That was rejected by immigration minister Robert Jenrick and Downing Street, which said it was “making progress” but was not complacent.
