Louise Nousratpour
Sunday September 30, 2007
Morning Star
ANTI-RACISM campaigners accused the Tories of appealing to the "fascist vote" on Sunday after a shadow minister claimed that the far-right BNP had "some very legitimate views" on immigration and crime.
Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, who is a close ally of beleaguered Tory leader David Cameron, risked igniting a race row on the first day of the party's crucial annual conference in Blackpool.
In a Sunday paper interview, she urged her party to "listen to BNP voters. They have some very legitimate views."
Her remarks were regarded as the clearest sign yet that the Tories are shifting further to the right as Mr Cameron seeks to appease traditionalists.
Campaigners attacked Lady Warsi's comments as proof that the Tories are the same old "nasty party" now seeking to embrace "fascist BNP" views.
Unite Against Fascism joint secretary Denis Fernando said that, in the light of a possible snap election, mainstream parties would be "foolish, irresponsible and dangerous to add a chorus to the call of fascists."
He warned that the Tory frontbencher's remarks were an endorsement of the "racist lies of a group with the sole aim of causing division and hatred and the declared aim of an all-white Britain, which would only be possible by violence.
"By attempting to accommodate their extremist positions on immigration and Islam, mainstream politicians legitimised fascist parties at the ballot box," Mr Fernando said.
A spokesman for the Unite union, which represents thousands of migrant workers, said: "The Tories defending the odious views of the BNP reveals that they have not changed, they will not change under Cameron and all decent-thinking trade unionists must vote against both the Tories and the BNP."
Lady Warsi's comments were also slammed by anti-racist group Operation Black Vote, for which she used to work.
"Pandering to the racist views peddled by the BNP and bought by the BNP voters is wrong," spokesman Simon Woolley stormed.
"The fact of the matter is that this country would collapse if it wasn't for migrant workers."
Mr Cameron defended Lady Warsi's views, adding: "What I have said before and I'm happy to say again, if you have very high immigration, it does put huge pressure on housing and on health and on education."
National Assembly Against Racism co-ordinator Milena Buyum countered the Tory chief's tired claims, stressing: "This country has been built upon waves of migrants from around the world, contributing to British society, its economy and culture.
"Each wave of migrants has faced hostility and racism and, despite this, went on to be part of this society."
A TUC report published in June concluded that the overall economic impact of immigration was positive.
"Host countries gain from migration, overall levels of employment and wages are slightly higher as a result of immigration and migrant workers pay more in taxes than the value of the public services they receive," it said.
"The old accusations of the extreme right, that immigrants take native workers' jobs or are a drain on the welfare state, are as false as they have ever been."
A study for the Department for Work and Pensions last year found "no discernible statistical evidence to suggest that migration has been a contributor to the rise in claimant unemployment in the UK."
Mr Cameron's crisis deepened on Sunday as a new poll showed him lagging behind Prime Minister Gordon Brown on nearly every indicator.
A survey by a Sunday paper found that 41 per cent would vote Labour, compared with just 34 per cent backing the Tories.
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