A SECOND Labour MP spoke out yesterday over everyday racism and sexism faced by women and ethnic minorities in Parliament.
Dr Rupa Huq, who won Ealing Central and Acton from the Tories last May, said working in Westminster was still like working in a “gentleman’s club.”

She said some MPs “looked down their nose” at her for bringing her 11-year-old son into Parliament during school holidays and gave an insight into the arcane practices that persist, such as special “women’s rooms.”

“The fact that they have four different ‘women’s rooms’ implies that the whole of the rest of the buillding is for men,” she told the Pienaar’s Politics show on BBC Radio 5 Live.

“The layout of these ‘women’s rooms’ are that they have a couple of ironing boards, a couple of sofas, a bed and a couple of magazins — things like Home and Garden.

“A bed, really? So that if it gets a bit too much, the ladies can sort of repose of it.

Ms Huq, whose parents came to Britain from Bangladesh, also revealed how she has been confronted by parliamentary security when she tried to access areas to MPs.

“Everyday I get people saying: ‘Oi, where do you think you’re going?’ And I have to get out my pass.

“I think it’s a mix of things: It’s racism, sexism and maybe ageism. I look a bit younger than I am, I like to think.”

Her comments come just two weeks after fellow Labour MP Dawn Butler raised concern over the level of ingrained racism in Parliament.

She told the same show: “I was in the lift and some other MP said: ‘This lift really isn’t for cleaners’.”