Labour Mayoral hopeful Tessa Jowell has apologised after a supporter made derogatory comments about rival Sadiq Khan’s faith.
Dame Tessa and Mr Khan are widely considered the frontrunners to become Labour’s candidate in next May’s mayoral contest.
Although most polling suggests Jowell is the public’s preferred candidate, supporters of Khan suggest that the surge of people registering to support Jeremy Corbyn in Labour’s leadership battle favours the Tooting MP.
Both are now seeking to secure the backing of those Labour members and supporters who’ve yet to cast a vote and have been calling and emailing voters to solicit support.
On Wednesday evening a Labour supporter took to Twitter to complain that a member of Jowell’s campaign who phone canvassed them “told me I had to consider Sadiq Khan ‘a liability’ because he’s Muslim.”
Dame Tessa Tweeted a few minutes later to say that she’d phoned the recipient of the orignal call to apologise and then publicly disowned the campaigner’s “unaceptable” actions.
She told her 36,000 Twitter followers that she expected all campaign volunteers and workers to mirror her “positivity” and said any slur on her opponents was “counter to everything our campaign is about”.
She added that if the culprit was identified they would “be told never to come again.”
The complainant responded: “Thank you so much, I really appreciate that you called me yourself, the apology you gave, and your swift action.”
