London - Opposition members urged Prime Minister Theresa May's
Conservative party Friday to suspend a lawmaker after he tweeted an
image of London's first Muslim mayor as a flying inflatable pig with
a second pig behind it in an apparently sexual position.
"Can't believe Mike Fabricant tweeted that vile, Islamophobic image
of [London Mayor] Sadiq Khan - thought it was a spoof," Labour
lawmaker Chuka Umunna tweeted.
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
Fabricant later deleted the tweet, claiming he "did not see the
detail on my small iPhone."
"I stupidly tweeted it in a meeting without checking it properly and
hadn't spotted there was a face on it," he tweeted.
"I am genuinely sorry if it caused anyone offence."
— Michael Fabricant (@Mike_Fabricant) July 13, 2018
Another Labour lawmaker, Afzal Khan, said the tweet was "abhorrent."
"Tory members, the former chair of the party, Sayeeda Warsi, and the
Muslim Council [of Britain] have all called for an inquiry into
Islamaphobia [in the Conservative party]," he tweeted, adding that
Fabricant "must be suspended immediately."
The image included the joke caption: "Breaking news: Trump defeats
Sadiq Khan in balloon wars," after the mayor's office allowed
protesters to fly a 6-metre inflatable orange baby bearing Trump's
face on Friday.
"I had been on TV saying that I thought the blimp was hypocritical,
and when someone sent me the pic on my iPhone I thought it was a
flying pig humping the Trump blimp," Fabricant claimed.
Trump has also been accused of racism against Sadiq Khan. The
US president criticized Khan again in a controversial interview
published by The Sun late Thursday.