Labour says “nasty party is firmly back” as Tory MP accused of “racial slur”

A Labour Party spokesperson has said that “if there was ever any doubt, the nasty party is firmly back” after Mark Francois MP was accused of using a “crass racial slur” to refer to the Japanese in parliament.

Addressing the House of Commons on Monday, Francois said: “Given the defence budget is likely to come under great pressure, why does it take BAE Systems 11 years to build a ship the Japs can build in four?”

Sarah Owen MP, who is chair of East Asians and South-East Asians for Labour, used a point of order this afternoon to criticise the Conservative MP, telling parliament that the use of the term “Japs” to refer to Japanese people is an “outdated and crass racial slur” and falls below the public standards expected of MPs.

Owen referred to a piece in The Times that had highlighted that there are only two MPs of eastern Asian or south-east Asian heritage in the Commons despite there being 1.2 million people from this group across the country.

“Perhaps it is comments like this or ‘the little man in China’ trope trotted out by a government minister last week, or when the former leader of the House [Jacob Rees-Mogg] said the words ‘yellow peril’ from that despatch box,” she said.

Mark Spencer, the environment minister, was criticised last week after suggesting that “some little man in China” could be listening in to his conversations following reports a device belonging to the former Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss had been compromised by foreign agents.

Owen accused Spencer of using the “crass and archaic” term to deflect from “repeated Conservative security breaches” involving the Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, at the time. Braverman resigned from Truss’ government after reports of the breaches began to emerge but was reappointed by Rishi Sunak six days later.

Rees-Mogg was accused of using an “extremely offensive racist term” in parliament last year when he used the derogatory term “yellow peril” in response to a question from an MP. He subsequently apologised for the remark, saying he had not known it was racist and that he had used the term “out of ignorance”.

Following Owen’s intervention this afternoon, Speaker Lindsay Hoyle told parliament that “the casual use of racial terms causes upset and should not be used”.

The Labour Party spokesperson called for Francois to apologise and added that he “may need reminding that it is 2022, not 1940”.