Dhaka: Rupa Huq, the Labour candidate for Ealing Central and Acton, was grappled by a Tory activit in the street for attempting to speak to London Mayor Boris Johnson on a campaign trail.

The Independent reported the incident took place during a walkabout, as the Mayor of London was canvassing support for the local Tory candidate, Angie Bray, when Rupa Huq attempted to draw him into debate about the issues facing Ealing.

Footage shows Conservative leaflets being thrust in her face and a party activist apparently manhandling Huq as she questioned the London Mayor. Angie Bray has asked the man, who has been named locally as Karim Sacoor to step down from her campaign team, Ealing Today noted.

There has been outrage from the Labour Party who posted a video of the incident accompanied by the hashtag #nastyparty. Rupa Huq says she was on her own at the time and claims that initially Conservative party members had told the BBC that she had 'gone berserk' during the incident but that this was quickly retracted once footage of the incident emerged.

Rupa Huq said, ‘'Boris Johnson tries to create the impression he’s all positive and fun, but he can’t deal with any real scrutiny. I was trying to ask him serious questions about issues affecting Ealing, and to be grabbed and shoved around by his supporters is disappointing.

‘Boris Johnson and his team owe me an apology – it’s about the example politicians like him set to people, particularly around how women are treated.  If figures like Boris Johnson want to engage with voters, they can’t react to questioning by manhandling people. You wouldn’t accept it in other walks of life, and people expect better from the Mayor of London.'

Huq says: 'I have not had a direct apology from anyone from the Conservative party - including Angie Bray. I don't regard the one that has appeared on twitter as a real apology.

‘We are running an active, positive campaign and will continue to do so regardless of the underhand tactics employed by the opposition.’

Rupa Asha Huq, born to Bangladeshi migrant parents who came to UK in the 1960s, is a writer, columnist, senior lecturer in sociology at Kingston University and former deputy mayor of the London Borough of Ealing. In November 2013, she was chosen as the Labour prospective parliamentary candidate for Ealing Central and Acton constituency at the 2015 UK general election.