A TORY MP has denied making racist comments after telling a human rights activist to “go back to Bahrain” and accusing him of “taking money off my country.”

Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (Bird) director Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei has lodged a police complaint over Beckenham MP Bob Stewart’s comments, alleging that they constituted racial abuse. 

The activist has also reported the incident to the Tory Party. 

Mr Stewart made the offensive remarks when he was confronted by Mr Alwadaei outside a reception hosted by the Bahraini embassy in London last Wednesday. 

In video footage of the incident, the activist can be heard asking Mr Stewart about a paid-for trip to the Gulf state, saying: “How much did you sell yourself [for] to the Bahraini regime?” 

In response, the Tory MP says: “Get stuffed. Bahrain’s a great place. End of. Go away. I hate you. You make a lot of fuss. Go back to Bahrain.”

Later in the video, he can be heard saying: “Now you shut up, you stupid man. You’re taking money off my country. Go away.” 

In a statement to the media, Mr Alwadaei said: “I don’t believe I would have been told to ‘go back’ to the country that violently tortured me if it weren’t for the colour of my skin.”

Mr Alwadaei was imprisoned and tortured in Bahrain after taking part in pro-democracy protests in 2011. He fled to Britain eight years ago and founded Bird. 

Mr Stewart, 73, who chairs the all-parliamentary group on Bahrain, has since apologised for his comments but has insisted that they were not racist. 

He said: “My mistake was to actually be goaded into reaction, and I apologise for that. I also apologise if anybody thinks I was being racist – I was not.

“I meant go back to Bahrain, which is a perfectly safe place, and protest there.”

Amnesty International has long accused the Bahraini regime of committing serious human rights violations, including torture.