The Hindu : My wife not a racist, says Tory MP

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, May 07, 2002

International

International

My wife not a racist, says Tory MP

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON MAY 6. "I will not condemn my wife. Am I a racist? No. Is my wife a racist? No. If she has offended anybody, she has apologised," an angry Nicholas Winterton screamed at a group of journalists investigating the "unfunny" case of his wife, Ann Winterton, the Tory MP sacked from the party's front bench for telling a racist joke at the weekend.

Mr. Winterton, himself a Tory MP, was the only one standing by the disgraced Shadow Minister for Rural Affairs after she was shunted to the backbenches amid a row over her remark that Pakistanis were "10 a penny" in Britain. Even those who believed that the joke was not intended to be racist said it was not the sort of remark people expected a senior political figure to make in front of a mixed audience.

Non-white Tories warned that such incidents of racial insensitivity would make it difficult for the party to rid itself of its image as a club of "xenophobic Little Englanders", a perception which it is trying hard to change under its new leader, Ian Duncan Smith. A prominent Indian Tory peer, Sheila Flather told The Hindu that the "Winterton affair" confirmed the existence of racism in the party.

"I was appalled by her remark and though I am happy that the leadership moved quickly to contain the damage by removing her from the front bench, the real question they must ask themselves is: why such things happen," she said criticising the party for having failed to establish links with ethnic groups despite talk of "inclusiveness". "Why Ms. Winterton was able to joke about `Pakis' was because for her and many like her `Paki' is only a word — they are not people. If you have no links with a community you think of them only in abstract terms — for you they are not people who might be hurt by what you say," Baroness Flather said.

The joke, in which an Englishman throws a Pakistani out of a train saying "they are 10 a penny in Britain", was only the latest in a series of verbal indiscretions committed by Ms. Winterton in the past. This has included distasteful remarks about the disabled and the Welsh, and a demand for the abolition of the Equal Opportunities Commission and the Commission for Racial Equality. Tory watchers said they were surprised that given his stress on moderation and inclusiveness, Mr. Duncan Smith should have appointed her to the front bench in the first place despite her well-known right-wing views.

The party's only black peer Lord Taylor, who had had a running battle with the leadership on race issues during the general elections last year, said it was not enough to sack her.

"This is like sticking plaster over a wound," he said calling for a "more pro-active, not reactive" approach to race relations. A Muslim sponsor of the Congleton Rugby Union Club, where she made the offensive remark at the end of what was described as a "typically boozy" dinner last Friday, said he might withdraw support from the club. "She is not an ordinary person, she is a public personality and she cannot make that kind of comment," Anan Islam said.

But commentators said racially offensive remarks were not uncommon, and celebrities and politicians of all hues had been hit by "Winterton-it is" at some time or the other.

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