Labour MP tweets apology after criticising health secretary’s Chinese wife
Labour MP Helen Goodman has become the latest politician to fall victim to an ill-advised tweet after taking to Twitter yesterday afternoon to launch a poorly judged attack on health secretary Jeremy Hunt’s Chinese wife.
Referring to widely quoted remarks made by Hunt at the Conservative party conference in which he called for Britons to adopt an Asian work ethic Goodman wrote to her 8,000 followers: “If China is so great, why did Jeremy Hunt's wife come to England?”
The remark drew instant condemnation from across the political spectrum prompting a grovelling apology and a statement from Labour party HQ disowning the sentiment with the promise that ‘Helen will be reminded of her responsibilities as an elected Labour politician.’
Wish to absolutely totally apologise for earlier tweet.
— Helen Goodman (@HelenGoodmanMP) October 11, 2015
Amongst those to damn the remarks were Conservative MP Nadhim Zahawi who responded: "Helen that is a terrible thing to say. I hope you delete and apologise to Mrs Hunt. Have you been hacked?"
Meanwhile Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron also weighed in, offering: "Terrible tweet from Helen Goodman. Never attack politicians' families. I hope she apologises. Clearly she missed the 'Kinder Politics' memo."