Neil Coyle has Labour whip returned after being suspended over ‘drunken abuse’

Neil Coyle has had the Labour whip reinstated after being suspended from the House of Commons and having the whip removed earlier this year. 

The Daily Express understands that Labour’s chief whip today informed the Parliamentary Labour Party’s Committee that Mr Coyle is now back in receipt of the Labour Whip.

This came after the MP was found by the parliamentary standards commissioner to have breached the policy with drunken behaviour in the House of Commons Strangers’ bar last year.

On one instance, he was found to have engaged in “foul-mouthed and drunken abuse” towards a junior parliamentary assistant employed by another MP.

According to Labour sources, chief whip Alan Campbell told the parliamentary committee that he took these matters extremely seriously and has been clear to Mr Coyle that the behaviour described in the reports is completely unacceptable. 

Sources said Mr Campbell told the committee that he has taken the time since the publication of the report to consider the findings of the ICGS and has also met with Mr Coyle a number of times and sought reassurances from the MP about his future conduct.

It is understood that the MP for Bermondsey and Old Southwark has undertaken two programmes regarding managing alcohol and has stopped drinking entirely.

At the time of his suspension, the independent expert panel described Mr Coyle’s actions as being “shocking and intimidating for any complainant, particularly a junior member of staff”. 

The second complaint saw Mr Coyle found to have “used abusive language with racial overtones” towards British-Chinese journalist, Henry Dyer.

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