MP Neil Coyle should be suspended from the Commons for drunkenly harassing a parliamentary assistant and racially abusing a journalist, an expert panel has recommended.

Mr Coyle, who is already suspended from the Labour Party over the allegations, was found to have breached parliament’s bullying and harassment policy in a report published by parliament’s Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme.

The panel has recommended Mr Coyle be suspended from the Commons for five days, during which he cannot vote, take part in debates and will have pay suspended. MPs will have to vote on this.

The panel were alerted to two incidents in February last year- both in the Commons’ Strangers’ Bar – in which they said the MP was drunk.

One was the “foul-mouthed and drunken abuse” of another Labour MP’s assistant and the other was the racist abuse of British-Chinese political journalist Henry Dyer the next night.

The panel found Mr Coyle, who is now the independent MP for Bermondsey and Old Southwark, used “abusive language with racial overtones” towards Mr Dyer.

Mr Coyle, 44, admitted he was “drunk” on both occasions, the report said.

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Following the incidents, Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle immediately suspended Mr Coyle from all parliament bars.

The MP apologised in the Commons on Friday to fellow MPs, his constituents and the two complainants as he said he was “ashamed of my conduct … it should not have happened”.

He also thanked the two complainants for having the courage to come forward and said it forced him to “recognise my drinking had become a dependency and to seek help”.

Mr Coyle said without their intervention he would not have been able to stop drinking – which he did soon after the incidents – and doctors told him if he did not he could have had a stroke, or worse.

“Their intervention has quite possibly saved my life,” he told the Commons.

The MP has admitted he was drinking up to 16 pints of Stella Artois beer a night, including up to four lagers an hour in the Strangers’ Bar every night.

Mr Dyer, who now works for the Guardian, said: “Everyone working in parliament should be able to do so without harassment and abuse.

“I spoke out to raise awareness of racism, particularly anti-Asian racism, and of inappropriate conduct.

“I am grateful to the ICGS for the way in which they have handled this matter, and to my colleagues and friends for their support and kindness. I am pleased this process has concluded and I can get on with my work as a journalist reporting on Westminster.”

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