Headteacher Katharine Birbalsingh manufacturers Labour MP Jess Phillips’ social media posts ‘racist and bullying’
Labour frontbencher Jess Phillips has been accused of “racist and bullying behaviour” after getting right into a row on social media with high-profile headteacher Katharine Birbalsingh.
Ms Birbalsingh, former chairwoman of the Social Mobility Commission and as soon as dubbed “Britain’s strictest headteacher”, accused the Birmingham Yardley MP of looking for to “whip up a social media mob” towards her on Twitter.
It got here after Ms Birbalsingh, head of high-achieving Michaela Community School in Brent, stated she inadvertently tweeted an image of Tina Turner alongside her abusive former husband Ike Turner amid tributes to the late star.
Ms Phillips then tweeted “hold the line!”, including: “Stay with me! Domestic abuse is never ok and we will defeat those who prop up the status quo…”.
Ms Birbalsingh wrote a four-page, open letter to Labour chief Sir Keir Starmer that includes a collection of tweets from Ms Phillips.
She wrote: “She inspired a vicious mob attack against me on Twitter on the evening of May 24 2023, and called into question my school’s safeguarding policies in a deliberative attempt to challenge my competence as a Headteacher.”
She additionally stated that she can be reporting Ms Phillips to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards.
She wrote: “Ms Phillips does not know me. She has never met me. She has never visited my school. The school is not in her constituency. In her Shadow Ministerial role, she has not previously publicly accused any other school headteachers in this way.
“My view is that Ms Phillips’ excessive and unprompted hostility in the direction of me is motivated by my race. By this I don’t imply that she hates all folks of color.
“Her behaviour is a clear example of ‘unconscious bias’. I mean that she hates me, despite not knowing me, because she subscribes to the idea that Black and Asian individuals in public life owe a duty to voice opinions that match with a left-wing view of the world, or they are worthy of her contempt.”
Sky News has contacted Ms Phillips for her response.
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Ms Phillips, the shadow minister for home violence and safeguarding, is considered one of Labour’s most high-profile MPs and a daily person of Twitter.
Ms Birbalsingh, who not too long ago spoke on the National Conservatism convention in London, stated she was a “floating voter” and was not a member of the Conservative occasion.
But she claimed that her attendance on the right-wing occasion helped clarify Ms Phillips’ anger in the direction of her.
She stated that Ms Phillips had introduced Labour into “disrepute” and referred to as on Sir Keir to take motion.
“I would like assurances that regardless of what views are held by any member of your Shadow team or party, baseless and unfounded abuse will not be directed towards my school and me. This is entirely unacceptable,” she advised the Labour chief.
Labour has not commented on the matter.