BRITAIN: The Conservative Party leader, Mr Iain Duncan Smith, moved to pre-empt a Tory race row yesterday by sacking frontbencher Mrs Ann Winterton for her racist "joke" about throwing a Pakistani off a train.
The shadow rural affairs minister made her comments about Asians being "10 a penny" in Britain at a rugby club dinner on Friday night just hours after the far right British National Party had claimed a third council seat in Burnley, just 30 miles from where she was appearing.
As the resulting row threatened to reignite race as a problem issue for the Tories, Mrs Winterton "unreservedly" apologised "if anyone was offended or took offence to what I said", while refusing to quit her frontbench post. However, Mr Duncan Smith promptly decided "an apology was not a sufficient response to the offence caused" by what a spokeswoman described as Mrs Winterton's "unacceptable and offensive" remarks. Accordingly he asked her to step-down with immediate effect, reminding her and his party of his conference promise last autumn that the Conservatives under his leadership "would be intolerant of intolerance".
The chairman of the Liberal Democrats, Mr Mark Oaten, said while Mr Duncan Smith had acted properly it was "staggering" to find senior Conservatives still making jokes of this kind. "Although Iain Duncan Smith has done the right thing in sacking her it does beg the question of how fundamental the reforms of the Conservative Party really are."
As race relations chiefs warned of a "chill factor" entering British politics on the back of the BNP's first electoral success in nine years, Mrs Winterton shared her "joke" with 160 diners in her Congleton, Cheshire constituency.
She told them: "An Englishman, a Cuban, a Japanese man and a Pakistani were all on a train. The Cuban threw a fine Havana cigar of the window. When asked why, he replied: 'They are 10 a penny in my country.' The Japanese man threw a Nikon camera out of the carriage, adding: 'These are 10 a penny in my country.' The Englishman then picked up the Pakistani and threw him out of the train window. When the other travellers asked him to account for his actions, he said: 'They are 10 a penny in my country.' "
The row came a year after the previous Conservative leader, Mr William Hague, was criticised for failing to withdraw the party whip from retiring MP Mr John Townend who attacked multi-racial policies.
A spokeswoman for the Commission for Racial Equality said: "Mr Duncan Smith certainly has shown leadership in this case and we are encouraged by this."
Restaurant owner Mr Anan Islam, who sponsors Congleton rugby club, said he was planning to withdraw his support following Mrs Winterton's comments.
Mr Islam, owner of the Taste of Raj in Congleton, has sponsored the club for several years but condemned Mrs Winterton's comments as "extremely bad".
He told Sky News: "She is not an ordinary person, she is a public personality and she cannot make that kind of comment." (Additional reporting: PA)