JEREMY Corbyn has condemned racist and homophobic comments by a Scottish Labour MP as "completely wrong".
But the Labour leader said Hugh Gaffney had "recognised and understood" that his language was unacceptable and apologised.
Mr Gaffney, MP for Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill, referred to a "Chinky" takeaway meal and joked about Robert Burns not being "bent" during a Burns supper.
Critics have since called on him to "consider his position", insisting Labour's failure to suspend him was a "slap in the face" to ethnic minorities.
Asked if Mr Gaffney would be suspended, Mr Corbyn said: "Hugh has apologised for what he said and he has been reprimanded for it.
"He is undertaking the appropriate diversity training and, indeed, has met and talked to people in the Chinese community and he is meeting other communities as well.
"What he said was completely wrong, of course, but he has recognised and understood that and apologised, and that's what we have done."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel