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Tory Lord Norman Tebbit has said the Nazis were left wing and that the man who murdered MP Jo Cox was not a "far right terrorist".

The former minister made the bizarre comments in a debate on the counter-terrorism and border security bill.

Tebbit, who was a minister in Margaret Thatcher's government, paid tribute to parliamentarians who were the victims of terrorism mentioning Tory MPs Airey Neave and Ian Gow and UUP MP Reverend Robert Bradford who were killed by Republican terrorists.

But he failed to mention the more recent example of Jo Cox who was killed by neo-Nazi terrorist Thomas Mair in her Batley and Spen constituency on June 16 2016.

Labour's Lord Kennedy of Southwark told the House of Lords that the former Tory minister was "right to remind us of the names of parliamentary colleagues who lost their lives and were murdered by terrorists".

(Image: PA)

He said: "I would add the name of Jo Cox, MP for Batley and Spen, who was murdered by a terrorist with links to the far right ​in her constituency on 16 June 2016.

"The terrorist shouted “Britain First” as he stabbed her to death outside the library in Birstall, where she was due to hold a surgery."

(Image: ullstein bild via Getty Images)

(Image: Parliament TV)

Lord Tebbit told the House of Lords: "The noble Lord referred to the murder of our parliamentary colleague Jo Cox by a far-right terrorist. He was not a far-right terrorist.

"He was an unbalanced man who was obsessed with the Nazis, the National Socialist German Workers’ Party—a left-wing party."

Labour's Lord Kennedy of Southwark replied: "We will have to disagree on that point."

Lord Tebbit also questioned whether right-wing extremism existed.

He asked: "What is this right-wing extremism? Is it people who want to reduce taxes and have smaller government and greater liberty?"