A Labour frontbencher has sparked a row with a Tory MP after accusing him and fellow colleagues from ethnic minority backgrounds of selling their “souls and self-respect” by accepting jobs in Boris Johnson’s newly formed cabinet.

His remarks came after the Conservatives’ newly appointed party chair, James Cleverly, mocked Jeremy Corbyn’s 2017 claim that only Labour can be trusted to “unlock the talent” of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (Bame) people.

Exiting the first meeting of Mr Johnson’s top team earlier this week, Mr Cleverly said: “Looking at my colleagues around the cabinet table when this tweet popped back into my memory. Seeing a lot of ‘unlocked talent’ in the room.”

But Clive Lewis, a Labour frontbencher who is of mixed race, replied to the Tory chair on his Twitter account. “Genuine congratulations James,” he said. “I mean it.”

“I’m just sorry you & the other black members of the cabinet had to sell your souls & self-respect to get there,” he added. “You serve under a racist PM and sit next to a minister for equalities previously fired for the Windrush scandal.”

Biggest lies told by Boris Johnson Show all 5 1 /5 Biggest lies told by Boris Johnson Biggest lies told by Boris Johnson Made-up quote for The Times Johnson was sacked from The Times newspaper in the late 1980s after he fabricated a quote from his godfather, the historian Colin Lucas, for a front-page article about the discovery of Edward II’s Rose Palace. “The trouble was that somewhere in my copy I managed to attribute to Colin the view that Edward II and Piers Gaveston would have been cavorting together in the Rose Palace,” he claimed. Alas, Gaveston was executed 13 years before the palace was built. “It was very nasty,” Mr Johnson added, before attempting to downplay it as nothing more than a schoolboy blunder. PA Biggest lies told by Boris Johnson Sacked from cabinet over cheating lie Michael Howard gave Boris Johnson two new jobs after becoming leader of the Conservatives in 2003 – party vice-chairman and shadow arts minister. He was sacked from both positions in November 2004 after assuring Mr Howard that tabloid reports of his affair with Spectator columnist Petronella Wyatt were false and an “inverted pyramid of piffle”. When the story was found to be true, he refused to resign. PA Biggest lies told by Boris Johnson Broken promise to boss In 1999 Johnson was offered editorship of The Spectator by owner Conrad Black on the condition that he would not stand as an MP while in the post. In 2001 he stood - and was elected - MP for Henley, though Black did allow him to continue as editor despite calling "ineffably duplicitous" PA Biggest lies told by Boris Johnson Misrepresenting the people of Liverpool As editor of The Spectator, he was forced to apologise for an article in the magazine which blamed drunken Liverpool fans for the 1989 Hillsborough disaster and suggested that the people of the city were wallowing in their victim status. “Anyone, journalist or politician, should say sorry to the people of Liverpool – as I do – for misrepresenting what happened at Hillsborough,” he said. PA Biggest lies told by Boris Johnson ‘I didn’t say anything about Turkey’ Johnson claimed in January, that he did not mention Turkey during the EU referendum campaign. In fact, he co-signed a letter stating that “the only way to avoid having common borders with Turkey is to vote Leave and take back control”. The Vote Leave campaign also produced a poster reading: “Turkey (population 76 million) is joining the EU”

Responding to the shadow treasury minister’s comments, Mr Cleverly said: “Didn’t see this earlier, I’ve been in meetings. Busy being the chairman of the Conservatives.

“Really surprised that you’re so bitter about seeing more diversity in senior political positions. Or are you guys just scared?”

Shaun Bailey, the Conservative candidate for the 2020 London mayoral election - who is also a person of colour - defended his colleague, claiming: “This kind of vitriol is meant to frighten communities into line, not to encourage them to participate in the political process.

“I’m glad to be party of a party that promotes and believes in BAME (black and minority ethnic) talent and I will gladly celebrate if Labour is ever able to match our achievements.”

Mr Johnson has a history of racist comments, including describing African people as "picanninnies" and referring to "watermelon smiles" and likening Muslim women who wear the niqab to "letter boxes" and "bank robbers".

The public row came after Mr Johnson’s team described the new administration as a “cabinet for modern Britain”, after appointing a record number of individuals from ethnic minority backgrounds.

Those include the home secretary Priti Patel, the chancellor Sajid Javid, and the international development secretary Alok Sharma, while Mr Cleverly will attend cabinet sessions in his capacity as Conservative Party chair.

Mr Lewis told The Independent that his comments applied to all individuals serving in the cabinet who were from ethnic minorities.

“Racism is clearly alive and well in our society," he said.