Second Labor MP apologizes about WhatsApp remarks

A second Labor Member of Parliament has apologized for comments in a WhatsApp -Chat, after Andrew Gwynne was fired as minister about reports he sent to the same group.

Burnley parliament member Oliver Ryan said in a statement that he was “completely unacceptable” in the group and he regretted “that he” didn’t speak at the time “.

Colleague MP Gwynne was fired on Saturday as Minister of Health The post on Sunday reported He sent a series of offensive and insulting messages in the WhatsApp group, which contained other labor figures.

Minister of home office Angela Eagle said that the most important whip of the party would speak with Ryan and that the rapid suspension of Gwynne demonstrated that the Prime Minister “would maintain the highest standards”.

On Monday, Greater Manchester’s police confirmed that it “had received a small number of complaints with regard to published messages that were said to be from a WhatsApp group” without confirming the identity of those involved.

A statement continued: “A non-crime hatred incident has been recorded and we are in contact with our parliamentary contact person as part of our first questions.”

Eagle told the BBC’s Today program that she felt “pretty nauseous and surprised” after seeing the messages.

West Lancashire MP Ashley Dalton has been appointed Gwynne replaced as Minister of Health.

Dalton was first elected in Parliament in 2023 and since the elections served as a parliamentary private secretary of health secretary Wes Streeting.

She unveiled last July She was diagnosed With breast cancer for the second time.

Ryan’s messages were sent before he was chosen as MP, but was reported in the Daily Mail on Sunday evening.

They seem to show Ryan, who is gay, who still mocks a Labor MP for his sexuality and the vice-chairman of the local Labor party denigrating.

In his statement, Ryan said: “I have not seen every message, but I accept the responsibility not to be more proactive in challenging what was said.

“I also made some comments that I am deeply regretted and would not make today and I heartily apologize for that.”

Ryan said that the WhatsApp group, reportedly called Trigger Me Timbers, was made by his “MP and former employer, Andrew Gwynne”.

He said he would fully work together with Labor’s investigation, which started after Gwynne’s messages were revealed.

Gwynne was suspended from the party and apologized in a statement about X for each violation caused by the “badly rated” comments.

In reports that were seen by the post on Sunday, Gwynne said he hoped that a 72-year-old woman would soon be dead after she had written to her city councilor about Bin collections.

The councilor shared the letter from the woman with Gwynne and other work figures in a WhatsApp group called Trigger Me Timbers, the newspaper reported.

The newspaper said that Gwynne also jokes about a voter that was “mowed” by a truck.

The former Minister of Health has also reported sexist comments about Angela Rayner, racist comments about Labor MP Diane Abbott, and seemed to make a light of anti -Semitism.

And reportedly he responded to a message with the name of an American psychologist, Marshall Rosenberg, and said that he “sounded too Jewish, adding it, is he in Mossad?”.

Ryan’s participation in the group was reported by the newspaper the next day.

After firing Gwynne, a government spokesperson said that Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer “was determined to maintain high standards of those in the public office” and “will not hesitate to take action against a minister who does not meet these standards” .

A Labor spokesperson added: “Swift promotion will be undertaken if individuals have violated the high standards of them as members of the Labor Party”.

Ryan, 29, said that between 2019 and early 2022 he was a member of the WhatsApp group, when he was a councilor of Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council. He was chosen for the first time as MP in July last year.

“Some comments in that group were completely unacceptable, and I completely condemned them,” he added.

“I am sorry that I did not speak at that time and I acknowledge that it was not wrong.”

An independent councilor of Tamesside Borough Council, Kaleel Khan, said that he had made a “hate crime report” on Sunday after voters had contacted him with concern about some messages.

He said to the BBC: “What worries me is when you have an elected official mocking women, or mock black people, Jewish people and voters.”

Khan said he had also written to ask the council to conduct an investigation into the actions of councilors in the WhatsApp group.

“I work with them, I am quite surprised about one or two of them, that they did not declare it,” he told the BBC, and added: “I am very, very surprised that they have not stopped it Done and leaves the group “

Also on Sunday, Minister of Conservative Shadow Cabinet Alex Burghart Sky News said that he was wondering whether members of the WhatsApp group called Gwynne’s comments at the time.

“That was a big WhatsApp group with many other Labor -members -was one of them deployed at the time? Has one of them called for that?” he said.

He added that Gwynne’s message about the older voter was “a bit of a pretty annoying attempt to do an old person”, and considered another about someone’s name who “sounded too Jewish” as “sinister”.