Image: Mohammed Afridi on Twitter.

Already the cracks are starting to show.

I wonder how Luciana Berger, who has made such a row over anti-Semitism in the Labour Party, feels about Angela Smith referring to people “of a funny… tint” on the BBC’s Politics Live:

Or is Ms Berger fine with it? She shouldn’t be – besides anti-Semitism, one of the main reasons for the “Independent Group” being formed was racism in general.

A lot of people aren’t – and made the obvious connection:

Here‘s Asa Winstanley of The Electronic Intifada: “Right-wing former Labour MP and “Labour Friend of Israel” @angelasmithmp proves just how concerned she really is about anti-racism by talking about people who are “a funny tint”.”

Barry O’Leary tweeted: “@angelasmithmp Thank you so happy you left especially after today’s proof you have problems with race. “Black or a Funny Tinge”.”

Some recalled Independent Group poster boy Chuka Umunna’s claim that Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour was “institutionally racist” and asked the obvious question. Here‘s James: “Is @TheIndGroup “institutionally racist”?”

Louie summed it all up – and provided part of this article’s headline: “A big thank you to Angela Smith for helping to kick racism out of the Labour party by resigning this morning.”

But the last word should go to Eoin Clarke’s Tory Fibs Twitter account:

It seems clear that Labour has lost racist deadweight and stands to acquire at least seven MPs of much higher quality. Let’s look forward to that.

Postscript: Skwawkbox has put up its own piece about this. I love the headline that proclaims: “No complaints procedure in place”.

Ms Smith has tweeted a statement on the matter, as follows:

I played it to Mrs Mike, who responded: “Now she knows how destroying it is. Would she have treated Corbyn the way she has if she had known what it’s like to be on the receiving end?”

Personally I have no sympathy. Certainly at least one of her colleagues has been happy to attack other Labour Party members for behaviour that no reasonable person would consider to be unacceptable. Ms Smith thought she was untouchable because of her privileged position. She was wrong. She’s not protected by the Labour Party complaints system any more. And that is no bad thing at all.

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