Row over by-election Labour candidate's comments

Two Conservative MPs have called on Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer to suspend the party's candidate in the Birmingham Erdington by-election, following comments she made in 2015.

Tory MP Tom Hunt said in Parliament that Paulette Hamilton should have the party whip withdrawn if she is elected.

Ms Hamilton was speaking at an event titled "The Ballot or the Bullet - Does your vote count?" in 2015 about increasing ethnic minorities' representation in politics.

GB News published footage of Ms Hamilton saying she believed in voting but was not sure "we will get what we really deserve in this country using the vote".

She also said Muslim Labour MPs in the area were not looking after "the needs of the community".

A Labour source said "these attacks on a black woman seeking to become the city's first black MP are deeply disturbing" and that her comments were "misrepresented".

On Wednesday, Tory MP Tom Hunt raised a point of order in Parliament, referencing the title of the event she spoke at.

The Ballot or the Bullet is the title of a speech made by Malcolm X, an African-American Muslim activist during the US civil rights movement.

In a video published by GB News, Ms Hamilton says: "So you talk about the bullet or the vote - I'm not sure, although I believe in the vote and I believe in our right to use that vote, or destroy that vote, I'm not sure we will get what we really deserve in this country using the vote.

"But I don't know if we are a strong enough group to get what we want to get if we have an uprising. I think we will be quashed in such a way we would lose a generation of our young people. So I am very torn.

"I went away and watched the Malcolm X film to make sure and listened to a lot of what he said to make sure I was ready."

In the video she also referenced the so-called Trojan Horse affair from 2014, which saw several schools in Birmingham investigated amid claims that a group of conservative Muslims had plotted to take them over and install sympathetic school governors.

In 2017, the case against five senior teachers accused of professional misconduct was dropped after an independent panel found the integrity of the process had been "called into disrepute".

In the video from 2015, Ms Hamilton says: "We have a Trojan horse in the council" and said "our Muslim brothers and sisters" had "made a plan" to "ensure that their teachings and what have you got into the system".

She added: "What then happened was many of the schools, inner-city schools in Birmingham, the Muslim families they filled schools, they then made sure they took over the governorships, as they took over the governorships they made sure that the heads of those schools were people they wanted to represent their cause.

"What they then did with doing all of this was made sure that their religious views and their beliefs were taken through the education system, it was also then taken into politics."

She added: "We have large numbers of Muslim councillors, we've got two MPs in this city, that look after the - well, they don't - but they're supposed to look after the needs of the community.

"What's happened is they've got into positions of power, they've forgotten the reason they were put there in the first place. The problem with our community - is we're not even on the map."

Speaking about increasing black and minority ethnic representation in politics, she then added that postal votes were a way that ethnic minority communities could "lock it down" and increase their voting turnout as "in one household you can have eight votes and it's locked down".

Mr Hunt and another Conservative MP, Gary Sambrook, are calling on Sir Keir to suspend her from the Labour Party and remove the whip if she was elected.

But a Labour source said: "These attacks on a black woman seeking to become the city's first black MP are deeply disturbing.

"Her comments are being misrepresented and taken out of context as part of a deliberate attempt by the Conservatives and their allies to hijack a democratic election."

The Birmingham Erdington by-election will take place on Thursday 3 March.