NASTY LABOUR ( CONT )
MP made ‘threatening’ comment on birth to pregnant journalist
A LABOUR MP was forced to apologise yesterday for making ‘threatening’ comments to a pregnant reporter about childbirth.
Tulip Siddiq, whose aunt is the prime minister of Bangladesh, warned a producer from Channel 4 to be ‘very careful’ as they quizzed her about an abduction in the country.
After a heated exchange in which one of her colleagues tried to cover the camera, she then told Daisy Ayliffe: ‘Hope you have a great birth, because child labour is hard.’
Channel 4 News reporter Alex Thomson called Miss Siddiq’s comments ‘apparently threatening’ and the programme complained to the MP and the Labour Party.
The incident was raised during PMQs yesterday, with Tory MP Nadine Dorries saying: ‘Many mothers in this chamber know how hard childbirth can be. But we would never use that knowledge in a veiled threat against a journalist when being questioned in the way [Miss Siddiq] did.’
Following a backlash after footage emerged of the dispute, Miss Siddiq admitted her comments were ‘ill-judged’.
She said on Twitter: ‘I want to apologise unreservedly for my comments to Channel 4’s producer, which were an offhand and illjudged attempt to deal with what I felt was a hostile situation. I would never want to upset her and I hope she accepts my apology.’ The London MP’s comments came as she refused to answer questions over a human rights issue in Bangladesh. Miss Siddiq was at a rally for Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British mother jailed in Iran.
Channel 4 News repeatedly asked why she did not contact her aunt to intervene on behalf of lawyer Ahmad bin Quasem, who has not been heard from since being detained in 2016. Campaigners say the British-trained barrister was abducted forces. opposition His by father leader Bangladeshi was Mir the Quasem executed security Ali.
When asked about the case, she told journalists to ‘be very careful what you’re saying – I’m a British MP ... We’re not covering the case. That is the end of my statement’. At the end of the report, Miss Siddiq is seen telling the pregnant producer: ‘Thanks Daisy for coming. Hope you have a great birth because child labour is hard.’ Yesterday Miss Siddiq said she has ‘no capability nor desire to influence politics in Bangladesh’. This is despite the fact she has talked of her close links to the regime on Twitter. Her aunt Sheikh Hasina Wazed is prime minister and her mother and brother are understood to be on Miss Wazed’s party’s ruling council. Prior to her election, Miss Siddiq also described herself as a party ‘spokesperson’. Last night Michael Polak, the Quasem family’s lawyer, said that since the dispute his client’s family had been ‘intimidated’ in their home by armed police. Channel 4 News also reported this. Mr Polak told the Mail: ‘It was definitely intimidation because there was no reason for armed police to be on their property today. I’ve asked Siddiq to sit down with me. She has campaigned for her aunt’s party in Bangladesh. There’s definitely more she could do.’ Miss Ayliffe declined to comment.
‘Hostile situation’