Labour MP Rosie Duffield says she could refuse to condemn racist abuse towards BAME activist for disagreeing with her policies

Labour MP Rosie Duffield has suggested that she could refuse to condemn racist abuse towards a BAME Labour activist in future after they disagreed with her policy suggestions about strengthening laws on the sale of nitrous oxide. On Tuesday, the Labour MP for Canterbury announced that she would be calling for ministers to tighten regulations on the sale of nitrous oxide. In a Commons debate, Duffield said that it was "far too easy" for young people to obtain the recreational drug, and appeared to suggest that criminalisation may be the answer, stating:

"If I purchased some canisters for the purpose of indulging a quick lockdown high, I wouldn't have broken the law."

However, Ash Sarkar, the Contributing Editor for left-wing new media outlet Novara Media, responded to a BBC article reporting Duffield's comments with a humourous reference to a segment from the cult Channel 4 show Brass Eye which satrised the war on drugs, stating:

"Users of laughing gas have reported adverse reactions from “Czech neck” to crying all the water out their body. One young woman even vomited up her own pelvic bone."

https://twitter.com/AyoCaesar/status/1285655843988480004?s=20 Duffield quickly responded to Sarkar's tweet, suggesting that her humourous comments were "vile and unpleasant", stating:

"Apparently the preventable early deaths of young people is merely comedy point-scoring to some on the far-left. How vile and unpleasant. Thanks to all my constituents who raised their concerns with me about the social, environmental and health problems caused by ease of access."

https://twitter.com/RosieDuffield1/status/1285848461657681920?s=20 However, Sarkar responded by citing statistics which she argued showed it was "silly" to focus on nitorus oxide whilst other legal drugs caused far more deaths, stating:

"Deaths related to laughing gas in 6 years: 25.

Deaths related to alcohol in 1 year: 9,214.

If criminalising nitrous oxide (a gas considered safe enough to administer to pregnant women during labour) wasn’t a silly policy, I wouldn’t make jokes about it."

Sarkar then added another tweet saying that she was "quite enjoying an otherwise polite conversation" until Ms Duffield had quote-tweeted her to her followers: https://twitter.com/AyoCaesar/status/1285850471916359681?s=20 However, Duffield responded to Sarkar's tweet by calling her "consistently unpleasant", before suggesting that she could refuse to condemn racist abuse towards the BAME Labour activist in future as a result: https://twitter.com/RosieDuffield1/status/1285851906263461889?s=20 Sarkar has repeatedly documented vile racist abuse and death threats she has faced on social media: https://twitter.com/AyoCaesar/status/1274589693741539329?s=20 Unsurprisingly, numerous social media users responded angrily to Duffield's suggestion that she could refuse to call out racist abuse and death threats if people disagree with her policies: https://twitter.com/ijclark/status/1285862144358088705?s=20 https://twitter.com/samjknights/status/1285859366743298048?s=20 https://twitter.com/lobstereo/status/1285863559277289472?s=20 https://twitter.com/TurbanedUrban/status/1285864238830018560?s=20 https://twitter.com/jasebyjason/status/1285852585426116608?s=20 https://twitter.com/tomtiger11/status/1285854356106031104?s=20 https://twitter.com/philipjames9/status/1285875318201425922?s=20 https://twitter.com/siraofp/status/1285873379002724352?s=20 https://twitter.com/miriksmit/status/1285859548981530629?s=20 https://twitter.com/HerbertMkHughes/status/1285873409486999554?s=20 In addition, Duffield also responded to numerous social media users who disagreed with her policy suggestions by simply blocking them. It remains to be seen whether Duffield's conditional condemnation of racist abuse and death threats towards Labour activists will become party policy.