Controversial race row model Munroe Bergdorf resigns as LGBT+ advisor to Labour

Liz Bates

Controversial transgender model Munroe Bergdorf has stepped down as an equalities advisor to the Labour Party.



Ms Bergdorf’s appointment to the party’s LGBT+ advisory panel last week was criticised in light of previous comments she had made about race.

The model was sacked from cosmetics company L’Oreal over comments she made online in which she claimed that white people’s "entire existence is drenched in racism".

In a statement this morning, she announced that she would no longer sit on the advisory board – set up by shadow equalities minister Dawn Butler – blaming criticism she had received from the Daily Mail and other news outlets.

In a Twitter post she wrote: "Following last week's exciting announcement that I had accepted a place on an LGBT advisory board assembled to offer counsel to Dawn Butler, the Labour party's women and equalities minister, it is with great sadness that I have decided to step down."

"This is a decision that I've had to make due to endless attacks on my character by the conservative right wing press and relentless online abuse.

“I refuse to be painted as a villain or used as a pawn in the press' efforts, especially those at The Daily Mail, to discredit the Labour Party and push their transphobic rightist agendas."

I won't let this continue to be a distraction or stand in the way of the LGBT+ panel's success. pic.twitter.com/O89Uz4CmS9 — Munroe Bergdorf (@MunroeBergdorf) March 6, 2018

Helen Grant, the Conservative vice-chair for communities, led the condemnation of Ms Bergdorf’s comments about race.

Responding to her appointment to the Labour panel Ms Grant said: "There really is no excuse for these abhorrent slurs and, fundamentally, they damage the campaign to promote equality and diversity across public life.

"When Jeremy Corbyn was elected Labour leader, he promised a ‘kinder politics’. Yet it seems every day we seem some new example of abuse from the Labour party.

“The kind of language Bergdorf has used has no place in public life, and ought to be condemned by all those who are serious about promoting equality."