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A Conservative councillor who has been arrested and suspended from the party over allegations he tweeted that a female journalist should be stoned was rebuked today in the Commons.
Gareth Compton, councillor for Erdington in Birmingham, was critcised after allegedly making the remark about Yasmin Alibhai-Brown on his Twitter page.
A Conservative Party spokesperson said Compton's language was "unacceptable", and he had been suspended from the party indefinitely, pending a further investigation.
During questions on future parliamentary business, Selly Oak MP Steve McCabe called for a debate on the punishment of stoning in Iran.
He told MPs: "Can we use that debate to hear your response to Birmingham Conservative councillor Gareth Compton's call for the stoning to death of the journalist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown?
"Will this disgraceful behaviour be tolerated?"
In response, Commons leader Sir George Young said stoning to death is a "barbarous form of punishment which the government, and I am sure every honourable member of this House, deplores."
He added: "I hope that no elected person will threaten any member of our society with that sort of punishment."
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