Tory MP Michael Fabricant apologises for tweeting 'Islamophobic' image of Sadiq Khan

Tory MP Mike Fabricant has apologised for retweeting an "Islamophobic" cartoon of London Mayor Sadiq Khan.

Mr Fabricant, whose late father Isaac was the rabbi of Brighton and Hove Synagogue, posted a tweet that showed Mr Khan floating over London as an inflatible pig alongside another pig, as Donald Trump laughed.

The tweet refers to the blow-up Trump Baby balloon that flew over London, with Mr Khan's approval, on Friday to protest the president's visit to the UK.

Mr Fabricant, who is MP for Lichfield, tweeted the image with the words: "Well, what can I say?"

He was condemned by fellow parliamentarians, including Labour MPs Chuka Umunna and Wes Streeting and former Tory party chair Baroness Warsi, who has previously warned about Islamophobia within the Conservative Party.

Mr Streeting wrote to the chief whip urging action over the "grossly offensive, highly inappropriate and racist" tweet.

I’ve written to the Government Chief Whip to ask that action is taken against Michael Fabricant over his grossly offensive, highly inappropriate and racist tweet. I’m sick of the Mayor’s religion being used as a punchline and punchbag by racists and bigots. MPs should know better pic.twitter.com/2YutgvHvmK
— Wes Streeting MP 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (@wesstreeting) July 13, 2018

Can’t believe @Mike_Fabricant tweeted that vile, islamophobic image of @SadiqKhan - thought it was a spoof. He has just deleted it. Describes himself as an “MP dude” in his twitter profile but is clearly an “MP idiot”. @SayeedaWarsi is right on this - her party has a problem.
— Chuka Umunna (@ChukaUmunna) July 12, 2018

And on and on it goes 🤦🏽‍♀️
There will be an inquiry- it’s only a question of time.
The problem in my party is too widespread for there not to be.
The question is how much damage we will do to our reputation in the meantime as we drag our feet @Conservatives https://t.co/NYTz0dwIzX
— Sayeeda Warsi (@SayeedaWarsi) July 12, 2018

Mr Fabricant deleted the image. On Friday, he issued an apology, saying he "accidentally tweeted a vile picture" that was sent to him by someone he thought had "good judgement".

He said he tweeted it thinking it was "a funny cartoon of a flying pig doing something to the baby Trump blimp". He said he deleted it after realising it depicted Mr Khan.

"I find it all particularly galling as everyone knows I am socially liberal Conservative," he said.

"I would never deliberately put up racist or Islamophobic tweet to offend people. It's not my style nor do I think that way. I really apologise to people I offended by my lack of attention."

pic.twitter.com/zeUIuMtXHf
— Michael Fabricant (@Mike_Fabricant) July 13, 2018

Mr Fabricant previously had to apologise for joking about punching a journalist.

He was sacked as vice-chairman of the party in 2014 for criticising the HS2 rail project and making online comments about colleague Maria Miller.

Mr Fabricant was criticised in 2007 after he described an election defeat as being like "a holocaust".

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