Labour's shadow international development secretary Kate Osamor has resigned amid a row over her son's drug conviction.

Ms Osamor said she wanted "to concentrate on supporting my family through the difficult time we have been experiencing".

In October, her son resigned as a London councillor after admitting possessing class A drugs with intent to supply.

The 29-year-old was found with up to £2,500 of cocaine, ecstasy, ketamine and cannabis at last year's Bestival event.

Labour officials had previously claimed Ms Osamor was unaware of her son's case until after he was given a community sentence of 200 hours' unpaid work.


But, according to The Times, she wrote to the trial judge ahead of his sentencing asking for leniency and stressing his remorse.

The newspaper said the letters had been revealed after it made an application to the court.

In November, after a Tory MP requested an investigation, Ms Osamor tweeted: "I have done nothing wrong. This is politically motivated."

I have done nothing wrong. This is politically motivated https://t.co/CG0okEG79S — Kate Osamor🌹 || Labour & Co-op MP for Edmonton|| (@KateOsamor) November 5, 2018

Her son, Ishmael Osamor, is also listed as employed as a senior communication officer in her parliamentary office.

The Times claimed Ms Osamor told a reporter who approached her for a comment at her home this week that she "should have come down here with a bat and smashed your face in".

She allegedly told him to "f*** off" before throwing a bucket of water on him and calling police.

In her short resignation statement, the Edmonton MP said she "remained fully committed to our programme for creating a society that works for the many, not the privileged few, and will continue to campaign for this from the backbenches".

Image: Ishmael Osamor admitted the charges and got a two-month community order and 20 days' rehabilitation

Jeremy Corbyn said he had accepted the resignation and thanked Ms Osamor for her work.

"She brought a new dimension to the role by committing Labour to tackling global inequality as well as poverty as part of building a world for the many not the few," the Labour leader said in a statement.

"I know Kate will take this time to support her family, work for her constituents and support our party's efforts to rebuild Britain from the backbenches."

Former international development secretary Priti Patel has said Ms Osamor and Labour "must make a full statement about what they knew about this case and why he [her son] continued to be employed on the public payroll at Westminster".

She added: "Serious questions must be asked about whether she has misled the public in her account so far of what she knew and when she knew it."