Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has insisted he was “quite right” to delete social media comments reposted by a Labor MP about new Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch.

Labour’s Dawn Butler appeared to share a tweet describing Ms Badenoch as “a member of white supremacy’s black collaborator class”.

Ms Butler retweeted a post by Nigerian-British writer Nels Abbey, who responded to the prospect of Ms Badenoch becoming Conservative Party leader by describing “Badenochism” as “white supremacy in blackface”.

While some Conservatives have now called for Ms Butler’s whip to be removed, Sir Keir conceded she “shouldn’t have said what she did”.

Speaking to journalists at the Interpol general assembly in Glasgow, the Prime Minister said, “He should not have said what he did, he deleted it, he is very right.”

Ms Butler has been harshly criticized by Conservative figures, with many calling for her to lose her Labor whip.

Ben Obese-Jecty, who was elected as Huntingdon MP in July, said Ms Butler was “not the only person on the Government bench who has this view of Kemi”.

He said: “This will be a test to see whether Keir Starmer lifts the whip or effectively turns a blind eye to Butler disgustingly endorsing this slander.”

Sir Keir had previously suspended the flogging of Labor MPs in response to comments about senior black Conservative politicians.

In 2022, he suspended Rupa Huq from the party for describing then-chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng as “superficially” black.

Mrs Huq apologized and had the whip repaired six months later.

Sir Keir and other Labor figures, including Foreign Secretary David Lammy, hailed Ms Badenoch’s election as the first black leader of a major party in Britain as a historic moment.