MP Naz Shah who was due to debate at the Oxford Union tonight with TV star Katie Hopkins has dropped out.

The Labour MP for Bradford West told the Oxford Union yesterday that she would no longer attend.

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Genevieve Athis, Oxford Union president, said: "I am very disappointed that Naz Shah MP has dropped out of our No Platforming Debate at such a late stage. We have been in contact since the 11th March 2019 and although the speakers for this debate have been public knowledge since the 24th April, she only expressed her unwillingness to speak opposite Ms Hopkins yesterday.

"I think it is a great shame that instead of debating Ms Hopkins in our chamber Ms Shah has decided to not participate altogether and I am sure that many of our members will also be deeply disappointed by this."

Ms Shah was due to debate with politician, Ann Widdecombe, and controversial journalist, Toby Young, about giving a stage to those with offensive opinions.

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With Oxford Union inviting Ms Hopkins to debate, a campaign has been set up called 'Boycott the Oxford Union', to stop the debating society from inviting both 'fascist and racist' speakers.

The campaign group which was set up on Twitter, tweeted Ms Shah this afternoon.

Ms Athis added: "Far from providing either Ms Hopkins or Ms Shah with a platform, the format of our debates is such that any speaker can be held to account either through challenges from the audience or points of rebuttal from other speakers.

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"Ms Hopkins will be delivering an eight-minute in speech in this debate as one of eight speakers including Ann Widdocombe MP and Chief Justice Robert French AC and anyone in the audience will, as is tradition, have the opportunity to challenge any of our speakers on either side of the motion."