Last night Business Insider journalist Henry Dyer revealed that Labour MP Neil Coyle had levelled sinophobic comments at him in one of parliament’s bars. At the time Labour was not willing to go further than saying they took the accusation seriously. This morning however they’ve reevaluated the light-touch response and removed the whip. A Labour spokesperson says:

“The Labour Party expects the highest standards of behaviour from all our MPs and we take allegations of this sort very seriously. Accordingly the Chief Whip has now suspended the Labour whip from Neil Coyle pending an investigation.”

Coyle’s been out of order for years…

UPDATE: Coyle says “I’m very sorry for my insensitive comments, [I] have apologised to everyone involved and will be cooperating fully with the investigation.”