Former Labour minister Dawn Butler has accused a senior shadow minister of triggering a "racist pile-on" after he targeted her on X.

During a Commons debate on Black History Month last Thursday, Ms Butler spoke in favour of the UK providing reparations for "stolen labour, stolen wealth, stolen land or stolen opportunity".

Addressing MPs on Monday, she revealed that uploading the speech to social media led to her receiving "thousands of abusive messages".

Conservative MP and shadow minister for policy renewal and development Neil O’Brien had responded on Friday with what she termed a "racially charged tweet".

He wrote: "If you want to tax my constituents more to fund random handouts to your mates overseas then yes, that is ‘stolen wealth’ – their money is not yours, they have done nothing wrong, and you can do one."

Ms Butler said the post "resulted in more abuse against me", asking if ministers "accept that MPs are bound by the code of practice and, at the very least, they shouldn’t be racists…