Environment Minister Mark Spencer has come under fire for implying that “some little man in China” was listening in on his phone calls.
It comes on the heels of reports that Liz Truss’s phone was hacked while she was Foreign Secretary.
Speaking to Sky News, Mr Spencer said: “We all talk on personal phones, don’t we?
“You know, I ring my wife.
“Maybe there’s some little man in China listening to my conversations between me and my wife.”
Labour MP Sarah Owen, who is of Chinese descent and is chair of East and South-East Asians for Labour, said: “Mark Spencer once again showing his ignorance, on many levels.”
Another Labour MP, Chris Bryan, tweeted: “‘Little man’? Honestly?”
Catherine West, the shadow minister for Asia and the Pacific, said: “More casual racism from the Tories.”