DENTON’S MP Andrew Gwynne has been sacked as a public health minister over alleged comments posted in a WhatsApp group.
The representative of his hometown has been suspended by the Labour Party as it investigates the statements, which were leaked to the Mail on Sunday newspaper.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has stripped him of his role as the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Public Health and Prevention, which he took up following last summer’s general election.
The newspaper says it gained access to “thousands” of messages from the closed group including Labour councillors and officials, set up in 2019.
Among the shocking exchanges that have been revealed, it claims Mr Gwynne mocked a 72-year-old resident who wrote about bin collections after not voting Labour.
His message read: “Dear resident, F*** your bins. I’m re-elected and without your vote. Screw you. P.S: Hopefully you’ll have croaked it by the all-outs.”
The MP is alleged to have made anti-Semitic remarks in the group, questioning if someone named Marshall Rosenberg was “too militaristic and too Jewish” and asking if he was “in Mossad.”
Mr Gwynne is also said to have made racist comments about parliamentary colleague Diane Abbott’s historic appearance as the first black MP at Prime Minister’s Questions.
The former minister is also alleged to have mocked Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, sharing a vulgar tweet about her performing a sex act.
I deeply regret my badly misjudged commments and apologise for any offense I’ve caused. I’ve served the Labour Party all my life and it was a huge honour to be appointed a minister by Keir Starmer. 1/2
— Andrew Gwynne MP (@GwynneMP) February 8, 2025
In another exchange, Mr Gwynne is said to have written about hoping a constituent requesting cycle lanes would be “mown down by an Elsa Waste HGV while he’s cycling to the Fallowfield Loop.”
A spokesperson for the Government said: “The prime minister is determined to uphold standards of conduct in public office and lead a government in the service of working people.
“He will not hesitate to take action against any minister who fails to meet these standards, as he has in this case.”
A Labour spokesperson added: “Andrew Gwynne has been administratively suspended as a member of the Labour Party.
“We are investigating comments made in this WhatsApp group in line with the Labour Party’s rules and procedures.
“Swift action will be taken if individuals are found to have breached the high standards expected of them as Labour Party members.”
Posting on X, Mr Gwynne said he “deeply regrets” his “badly misjudged comments” and apologised for any offence caused.
He added: “I’ve served the Labour Party all my life and it was a huge honour to be appointed a minister by Keir Starmer.
“I entirely understand the decisions the PM and the party have taken and, while very sad to have been suspended, will support them in any way I can.”
At the age of 21, Mr Gwynne became England’s youngest councillor when elected to Tameside Council in May 1996, representing the Denton West ward. He was then re-elected in 2000 and 2004.
He has been an MP – first for the Denton and Reddish constituency, now for Gorton and Denton – since 2005 and served in the shadow cabinet of Jeremy Corbyn as Shadow Minister without Portfolio from 2016 to 2017.
He was Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government and Labour Party Co-National Campaign Coordinator from 2017 to 2020.
He then served as the Shadow Minister for Social Care from 2023 to the 2024 election.
Despite his suspension from the Labour Party, under whose banner he was elected, Mr Gwynne can still serve as an Independent MP.
He can essentially resign by taking up a position as Crown Steward and Bailiff of the three Chiltern Hundreds of Stoke, Desborough and Burnham or Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead.