LABOUR MP Claudia Webbe slammed Police and Crime Commissioner Rupert Matthews today following his “pathetic and discriminatory” instruction to staff to have no contact with the Black Lives Matter movement.

The Leicestershire PCC said in an article for the website Conservative Home that he had imposed the ban.

“As of now, this organisation will have absolutely no contact at all with Black Lives Matter.”

He also wrote: “Why are we meeting an organisation that wants to defund the police, has put police officers in hospital and desecrated the cenotaph in London?”

Leicester MP Ms Webbe told the Morning Star: “Rupert Matthews’s decision to refuse to meet with local black activists and ban staff from communicating with Black Lives Matter groups is as pathetic as it is discriminatory.”

She said minorities make up the majority of her constituents, making it “richer for this vibrant exchange of cultures.”

Ms Webbe added: “For the Police and Crime Commissioner to refuse to engage with this community is an appalling, racist dereliction of duty.

“This is the same logic that has led Tory MPs to boycott the England football team’s triumphant journey to the Euros final because they dared to take an anti-racist gesture.

“They are propagating far-right talking points that have associated a movement for racial justice with a new red scare.

“The inspiring Black Lives Matter movement is deserving of our full support and has sparked a global debate regarding the depth of systemic, structural and state racism.

“I will continue to stand in full solidarity with all those who protest against systems of racist oppression.”