Welfare Reform Minister Lord Freud has issued a "full and unreserved apology" after suggesting that some disabled people are "not worth" the minimum wage - but stopped short of resigning.
The Tory peer said he had been "foolish" in "accepting the premise" of a question posed to him during a fringe event at the Conservative Party conference last month.
Tory MP Robert Halfon has called for an apology after Shadow Education Secretary Tristram Hunt suggested he supported paying disabled people less than the minimum wage.
Mr Hunt had told the BBC's Daily Politics that remarks from Tory peer Lord Freud about disabled people had been echoed by some Conservative MPs.
Mr Hunt said: "There is also a political context to this, and I think it was Robert Halfon - some backbench Conservative MPs have also made the case for not paying disabled people the minimum wage."
But Mr Halfon, who himself suffers from spastic diaplegia, told the House of Commons he was a "passionate supporter" of the minimum wage.
He also revealed Mr Hunt had texted him to acknowledge he had made a mistake.
However he said "millions of people" would have seen the original remarks and demanded Mr Hunt come to the House to apologise in person.
Questions to be asked over meaning behind Lord Freud's comments relating to disabled workers.
Ed Miliband has called for Tory Lord Freud to resign after he suggested some disabled workers are 'not worth' the full minimum wage