Ministers have been criticised after a GCSE textbook had to be removed from sale for containing stereotypes about Caribbean families.

The AQA-approved sociology book, published by Hodders Education, was removed from shops after it was noticed a passage stated that Caribbean men were “largely absent” from family situations, without providing any evidence or context to support the claim.

The GCSE textbook was originally released in 2014 and an updated version, which still included the paragraph, was published in 2017.

Shadow Commons leader Valerie Vaz raised the issue in business questions.

Ms Vaz said: “I and many other members signed a petition for the removal of a sociology textbook approved by the exam board AQA, which I presume was approved by the Department for Education, which perpetuated an untrue racial stereotype about African Caribbean men. The book has now been withdrawn.”

Commons leader Andrea Leadsom did not address the issue directly, but said she had been “delighted” to see that “there is more of the history of black races in the world being brought into our history books”.

She added: “I think that’s incredibly important, it has been far too much white-focused and it will be very interesting to see how that imbalance is addressed going forward.”