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Tory MP Bob Stewart told an activist to “go back to Bahrain”, according to the activist, who lodged a police complaint after their confrontation.
Syed Ahmed Alwadaei, director of the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, claimed the comments amounted to racial abuse and also reported the incident to the Conservatives.
The Tory MP apologized but denied his comments were racist – saying he had meant to suggest the activist should be campaigning in Bahrain.
Videos showed Mr Stewart telling the activist she was “taking money from my country” as he was challenged about his ties to the Gulf state.
Mr. Stewart told him, “Get your fill. Bahrain is a great place, stop it, go away, I hate you. You are making a lot of noise – go back to Bahrain.
Mr Alwadaei challenged the MP over donations from the Bahraini government, asking “how much have you sold out to the regime in Bahrain” as the confrontation continued.
Mr Stewart replied: “I didn’t, now shut up you fool… You’re taking money from my country, get out.”
Mr Alwadaei’s complaint to police described it as an “incident of racist abuse” which happened outside the Foreign Office’s Lancaster House following an event organized by the Bahraini embassy on Wednesday.
In a statement to the media, the activist added: “I don’t believe they would have told me to go back to the country that brutally tortured me if it wasn’t for the color of my skin.”
“No one should be subjected to racist abuse, especially for holding an MP to account for accepting lavish gifts from one of the world’s most repressive regimes.”
Giving Mr Alwadaei an award for his 2020 campaign, the Index on Censorship described him as having undertaken “vital” work since fleeing Bahrain nine years earlier to take part in anti-government protests.
Mr Alwadaei, 36, says he was wounded by Bahraini police and subsequently imprisoned and tortured, and tried by a military court for his involvement.
Stewart, 73, is chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Bahrain and has accepted paid trips from the Gulf state.
He told the PA news agency: “My mistake was that I was actually pushed into a reaction and I apologize for that. I also apologize if anyone thinks I was racist – I wasn’t. I meant to go back to Bahrain, which is a perfectly safe place, and protest there.
The MP added: “If anyone thinks I was racist, I honestly didn’t mean to be and I apologize if they think that and I wasn’t.”
Mr Stewart, a former British Army officer who was stationed in Bahrain in 1969 and has represented Beckenham since 2010, praised the Gulf state as a “wonderful place to live”, adding: “You can worship anything you want in Bahrain – you can worship a tree.”
Last month, Bahrainis took part in elections for the lower house of parliament, which advises King Hamad, but no opposition candidates were allowed to run and Amnesty International warned that the elections would be held in an “environment of political repression”.
Parliamentary documents show Mr Stewart booked £5,349 worth of flights, accommodation and food on a four-day trip to Bahrain in November last year, paid for by his Foreign Office.
Mr Alwadaei wrote in a complaint to Tory party chairman Nadhim Zahawi that the MP’s comments breached the party’s code of conduct on “minimum standards of behaviour”.
He also wrote a complaint to Parliamentary Standards Commissioner Catherine Stone, claiming Mr Stewart’s remarks breached the code of conduct for MPs.
A Conservative spokesman: “We have an established code of conduct and formal processes where complaints can be made confidentially. This process is rightfully confidential.”
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