Parliament has been accused of “funding hate” after adverts for free tours of the House of Commons appeared on the far-right website Breitbart.
Commons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg faces calls to act after the ads were seen on the American website, where Donald Trump’s former advisor Steve Bannon served as executive chairman until early last year.
The UK parliament, not MPs, is responsible for placing adverts promoting the institution at home and abroad and has “paused” the ads while it is reviews its digital policy.
But Labour MP Mary Creagh wants Rees-Mogg to intervene as a minister to ensure ads promoting parliament do not appear on fake the site again.
In a letter to Rees-Mogg, Creagh describes Breitbart as a “home to misogyny, homophobia, anti-Semitism, islamophobia, racism and wild conspiracy theories”.
Her letter asks the minister to ensure “ads do not appear on such websites in the future”.
Describing Breitbart as an “extremist, far-right, white supremacist fake news website”, the Wakefield MP adds: “A quick tour of the site reveals it is a home to misogyny, homophobia, anti-Semitism, islamophobia, racism and wild conspiracy theories.
“Macmillan Cancer Support, the WWF and eBay are some of the organisations which have already blacklisted fake news sites like Breitbart, Evolve Politics, Rebel Media, The Canary, Politicalite, Dorset Eye, and Westmonster.”
She also asks Rees-Mogg to investigate “how this regrettable incident occurred”.
Rees-Mogg’s job as leader of the House of Commons sees him schedule votes and debates and act as parliament’s representative to Boris Johnson’s ministerial team. A spokesman for the the cabinet minister said the placing of adverts doesn’t fall within his remit.
A spokeswoman for Rees-Mogg said: “This is a matter for the House of Commons authorities, who have issued their response.”
A UK parliament spokesperson said: “We have paused these adverts while we review our digital advertising policy.”