A FURIOUS Dominic Raab compared Labour to the BNP in a fiery clash with a senior party member after Question Time.
The Foreign Secretary faced up to shadow transport secretary Andy McDonald – chastising him about anti-Semitism in Labour.
Meanwhile, Mr McDonald tried to point the finger at the Tories for not holding an inquiry into Islamophobia.
Speaking over each other for close to a minute as others in the room look on, McDonald could be heard saying: “You’re actually putting it into the long grass, you’re refusing to do it … listen to Baroness Warsi, she’s telling you what to do about it. You should be doing it.”
Mr Raab said: “Two parties in this country’s history have been investigated by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) – Labour under Corbyn and the BNP (British National Party).
“Answer that.”
The BNP is a far-right political party that has previously called for all immigration to be stopped with party members previously promoting conspiracy theories about white genocide and Jews controlling the world.
Later, on the BBC’s Newsnight, Mr McDonald said Labour is “happy” to be subject to an inquiry into anti-Semitism because its efforts to tackle the issue could be “externally validated”.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission launched an investigation into anti-Semitism in the party in August “after receiving a number of complaints about allegations”.
Mr McDonald added: “We’re happy that EHRC are looking into these matters because if they can look at our processes and find any room for improvement then we want to hear from them.
“We think we’ve taken many steps including the doubling of staff, the appointing of internal counsel, and speeding up the processing of complaints.
“So we’ve done an awful lot about this but we are very happy to have that externally validated and looked into by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, and really that’s why we set it up in the first instance so they could carry out these functions.”
Mr Corbyn was last night blasted for his “nice old grandpa act” during Question Time as he was berated over the abuse of Jewish MPs.
But Mr McDonald added: “Hopefully the Conservative Party will take the warnings from Baroness Warsi and set up their inquiry into Islamophobia and if necessary the EHRC may want to look there as well.
“It’s critically important that we remove all forms of prejudice out of political life and wider society.”
Baroness Sayeeda Warsi has been vocal in calling for an inquiry into apparent anti-Muslim bigotry within the Conservative Party.
She recently tweeted the decision not to hold an inquiry into the specific issue was “disappointing” and “predictable”.
Labour leader Corbyn was last night criticised for his “reckless socialist ideas” during Question Time last night.
Asked if he would campaign for Remain or Leave, he claimed he was neutral – after dodging the question NINE times during Tuesday night’s debate.
He was met with a roar of laughter as he failed to answer yet again.
