Hague attacked by own M.P. on race issue

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON, APRIL 28. From sniping from within to being jostled on the streets, nothing seems to be going right for the Tory chief, Mr. William Hague as the race row begins to bite his party. In the first hint of a backlash, Mr. Hague came under attack from one of his own senior black colleagues for being soft on racist elements in the party and was jostled and heckled by protesters in a parliamentary constituency, near Leeds.

Protesters, wearing ``Hague masks'', mocked him when he stopped to buy flowers. ``Are those for Mr (John) Townend?'' they asked referring to the controversial Tory M.P. whose incendiary statements on race have prompted calls for his expulsion from the party. The protest came a day after Mr. Townend caused outrage by accusing Labour of turning Britain into a ``mongrel race'' and telling immigrants to abandon their roots if they wanted to live in Britain.

Mr. Hague, who has consistently refused to discipline Mr. Townend arguing that it would be an ``empty gesture'' as the M.P. was not contesting the coming general election anyway, was accused of ``lack of leadership'' by the black Tory peer, Lord Taylor. In what was seen as the sign of an open revolt against Mr. Hague's leadership, Lord Taylor said:``Mr. Hague is very proud of his macho image. He has a chance now to show real macho leadership by acting (against Mr. Townend).'' He accused Mr. Hague of ``saying one thing one day and another thing the next day'' which made people, particularly ethnic minorities, uncertain about his stand on race.

Lord Taylor became the first senior Tory member to join the cross-party chorus for action against Mr. Townend as Mr. Hague's popular ratings plummeted further, heightening speculation over his future after the general election in June which his party is set to lose. Dismissing Mr. Hague's argument for not disciplining Mr. Townened as a ``cop-out'', Lord Taylor said the retiring M.P. had caused offence not only to ethnic minorities but to ``decent'' people all over the country who believed in a multicultural and multiracial Britain.

The tension in the party between the ``liberals'' and the ``conservatives'' came to the fore amid reports that while one section - apparently led by the Shadow Chancellor, Mr. Michael Portillo - wanted the party to be more ``inclusive'', the right- wing believed to be represented by the Shadow Home Secretary, Ms. Ann Widdecombe was trying to cling on to an ``outdated'' platform removed from the demands of a modern society.

Personally, Mr. Hague is seen to have his heart in the right place, but in crunch situations he has invariably tended to strike a rightist posture and his ``foreign land'' speech accusing the Labour Government of turning Britain into a foreign country because of its soft immigration and asylum policy is seen to have encouraged people like Mr. Townend. That is a speech which he will take a long time to live down, and as he faced further flak on the issue Mr. Bill Morris, a prominent trade union leader, today retorted: ``It is indeed a foreign land. A foreign land where ordinary black British families wake up almost every morning to listen on the radio to descriptions of themselves they do not recognise.''

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Section  : International
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