Tyson Fury: Labour MP Chris Bryant invites boxer to tea at the House of Commons to discuss his 'issues'

Shadow leader of the Commons says the heavyweight world champion should not be on the SPOTY shortlist

Chris Bryant (Reuters)

The Shadow leader of the Commons, Chris Bryant, has urged the new world heavyweight boxing champion, Tyson Fury, to “get in touch” and come to tea at the House of Commons, so the pair can talk about his “issues”.

Mr Bryant argued that Fury, who defeated Wladimir Klitschko to win his world titles last Saturday, was not an appropriate person to be nominated for the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year (SPOTY) shortlist.

An online petition, set up by the LGBT campaigner Scott Cuthbertson, has already collected more than 63,000 signatures demanding that Fury is removed from the list over his outspoken comments about homosexuality.

Asked if Fury was an appropriate person to be nominated for Spoty, Mr Bryant told Sky News’ Murnaghan programme: “No I don’t.”

He claimed: “My real problem is that Tyson has equated homosexuality with paedophilia and actually that is a very dangerous equation to make because it means that we don’t take child abuse seriously.”

He said most child abuse happened within the family and was heterosexual.