Yvette Cooper branded a retweet by a Labour MP about Kemi Badenoch as “appalling”.

Dawn Butler shared a post on X from Nigerian-British author Nels Abbey describing the new Tory leader as representing “white supremacy in blackface”.

The Brent East MP later deleted the retweet which said Ms Badenoch was a “member of white supremacy’s black collaborator class”.

The Home Secretary said she had not seen the post, but when read excerpts from it, she told LBC: “I clearly strongly disagree with that.”

Asked whether the words had a “racist sentiment”, Ms Cooper added: “The words that you have read out are clearly appalling and I would strongly disagree with them.

“So, I haven’t seen the post. I don’t know the circumstances around it but I think we should congratulate Kemi Badenoch on her election.

“I will continue to disagree with her on all sorts of issues, but, nevertheless, I congratulate her on her election.”

There have been calls for Ms Butler, who represents Brent East, to lose the Labour whip over the retweet.

Pressed on why no action had been taken, Ms Cooper said: “As I said, I haven’t seen the post and I think those sorts of issues around party issues, those are always ones for the whip.”

Sir Keir Starmer said Ms Butler was “quite right” to delete the retweet.

Speaking to journalists at the Interpol general assembly in Glasgow, the Prime Minister said: “She shouldn’t have said what she did and she has deleted it and quite right too.”

Ms Butler has faced criticism from Tory MPs for sharing the post after Ms Badenoch won the Conservative leadership race on Saturday.

Huntingdon MP Ben Obese-Jecty said Ms Butler was “not alone on the Government benches in holding this view of Kemi”.

He said: “This will be a test to see whether Keir Starmer removes the whip, or effectively condones Butler’s abhorrent approval of this smear.”

Other Labour figures, including the PM and Foreign Secretary David Lammy, hailed Ms Badenoch’s election as the first black leader of a major UK party as a historic moment.

In later posts, Mr Abbey said his original comments had been “clearly satirical” and “intended as a sketch”.

But he defended Ms Butler saying she “may not welcome the ascendancy of an extremely right-wing reactionary black person”.

He added: “Because of stuff like this, which is vehement political disagreement, it is both fair and to be expected that many black people may not view Badenoch as (leader of the opposition) to be a ‘proud moment for our nation’ in the same way as, say, Keir Starmer does (or is politically mandated to).”