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A Labour MP today apologised after being caught on camera making an “apparently threatening” remark to a pregnant TV reporter.

Tulip Siddiq said her comments to Daisy Ayliffe, a producer on Channel 4 News, were an “off-hand and ill-judged attempt to deal with what I thought was a hostile situation”.

In remarks interpreted by Channel 4 News’s chief correspondent Alex Thomson as “apparently threatening”, Ms Siddiq said to Ms Ayliffe: “Thanks for coming Daisy, hope you have a great birth, because child labour is hard!”

Ms Siddiq, MP for Hampstead and Kilburn, made the remarks on Saturday after being asked about the case of British barrister Ahmad bin Quasem, who has disappeared in Bangladesh.

Her office manager put his hand over the camera.

The incident was broadcast on Channel 4 News last night, sparking a complaint to the Labour party from the programme’s editor Ben de Pear and calls for Ms Siddiq to apologise.

Ms Ayliffe had tweeted last night: “The perils of being a pregnant journalist: An MP might use it against you.”

Campaigners fear Mr bin Quasem has been “disappeared” by the country’s security forces. They want Ms Siddiq to intervene because her aunt is Bangladesh’s prime minister and because she has campaigned prominently for the release of her constituent Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who is being held in Iran.

Today Ms Siddiq said in a statement: “I want to apologise unreservedly for my comments to Channel 4’s producer, which were and off-hand and ill-judged attempt to deal with what I felt was a hostile situation. I would never want to upset her and I hope she accepts my apology.

With regard to the Channel 4 news report itself, and as I made clear prior to the event on Saturday, I was born in London and serve as a British member of Parliament. The focus of my work is spent on delivering for the residents of Hampstead and Kilburn who elected me to represent them.

The fact some members of my family are involved in politics in Bangladesh has long been a matter of public record which I have not hidden from. That said, I have no capability nor desire to influence politics in Bangladesh.”

The apology from Ms Siddiq, who sits on the women and equalities committee in Parliament, emerged shortly after the Metropolitan police confirmed that it had received a complaint from her alleging common assault in her exchanges with the Channel 4 crew.

Channel 4 was aware of this on Sunday but was mystified by it. Mr Thomson told the Standard today: “Since there was no assault, we were surprised she had called the police.”

Chanel 4 News was today broadcasting the entire 10 minutes of footage of its exchanges with Ms Siddiq, which was filmed at a vigil in West Hampstead for Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe.

The Met statement said: “Police were called at approximately 13:00hrs on Saturday, 25 November by a woman, aged in her 30s, alleging an incident of common assault.

"The incident happened in West End Lane, NW6 earlier that day. Enquiries continue.”