 Labour MPs lashed out with Angela Eagle tweeting the shocked face emoji, Chris Elmore writing 'the state of this' and Chris Bryant saying 'little man? Honestly?'. Sarah Owen, the first MP of south-east Asian descent, tweeted: 'Mark Spencer once again showing his ignorance, on many levels.' Ms Owen told HuffPost UK: 'Clearly government ministers like Mark Spencer do not understand the severity of the now repeated Conservative security breaches. 'No amount of deflecting, even by throwing out the crass and archaic 'little Chinese man' trope, will distract us from the fact the PM chose to re-hire Braverman just six days after a ministerial code violation to one of the most sensitive positions of state.' Twitter user Joseph Gould tweeted: "That's not just a bad take: that's a Mark Spencer bad take." Journalist Will Jordan tweeted: 'Casual racism.){kind=link}
Environment Minister Mark Spencer was accused of ‘casual racism’ after saying ‘when I ring my wife, maybe there’s some little man in China listening to my conversation’
A Tory minister has been branded “ignorant” for joking “some little man in China” might be listening to him and his wife.
Mark Spencer – who is already being investigated over alleged comments about an MP’s Muslim faith, which he denies – made the remark as he tried to downplay security concerns over the Home Secretary.
Suella Braverman quit after using her personal e-mail account to send a market-sensitive document to two people outside government – and was then rehired six days later by Rishi Sunak.
But Mr Spencer told Sky News: “We all talk on personal phones don’t we.