The Hindu : Tory MP sacked from post for racist joke

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, May 06, 2002

International

International

Tory MP sacked from post for racist joke

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON MAY 5. A leading Conservative MP, Ann Winterton, has been sacked from her post on the party front bench after telling a racist joke. The party chief, Iain Duncan Smith, removed the Shadow Rural Affairs Minister from the Shadow Cabinet.

The row over Ms. Winterton's xenophobic jibe at a club party that Asians were "10 a penny" illustrates the heightened racial sensitivities in Britain after a strong showing by the far-right British National Party in last week's local elections, and the growing clout of racist groups across Europe. Ironically, her indignant critics and the media ended up stirring passions even more by detailing her remark in public.

Ms. Winterton apologised for her "Paki-bashing" after the Tory leadership came under pressure to sack her from her post, and the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) called her action a breach of the party's commitment to maintaining good race relations. "I unreservedly apologise if anyone was offended or took offence to what I said," she said in a statement though her friends defended her saying her comment was not intended to hurt anyone.

The Tory MP cracked the offensive "joke" at a rugby club dinner in her constituency, Congleton, even as political parties, including her own, were wrestling with the implications of the victory of three BNP candidates in the immigrant town of Burnley on an overtly racist agenda. The joke featured a Cuban, a Japanese, a Pakistani and an Englishman travelling together on a train. The Cuban threw a Havana cigar out of the window saying they were "10 a penny" in his country; the Japanese said the same thing as he got rid of a Nikon camera; and the Englishman then picked up the Pakistani and hurled him out the window saying: "They are 10 a penny in my country."

The Tory leadership, which has been embarrassed once too often by its members' racially insensitive actions, initially stood by Ms. Winterton with a spokesman saying that her apology was the "end of it".

Labour MPs were scathing in their condemnation. "I am not Mrs Politically Correct but I think she has just gone over the top," the Labour MP, Ann Cryer, said calling Ms. Winterton's position "untenable" after her "hurtful" remarks. Another Labour MP, Peter Bradley, said her comment was "appalling" at a time of widespread concern over the rise of the "racist Right in Europe".

A CRE spokesman stressed that politicians should watch their language when talking about race and said Ms. Winterton's remarks were "stereotyped". The incident is likely to damage Mr. Duncan Smith's efforts to attract ethnic minorities by trying to project Tories as "inclusive" and cosmopolitan.

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