Howard denies racism charge over Traveller policy
Conservative leader Michael Howard was today forced to deny charges that his decision to focus political attention on illegal Traveller sites was “racist”.
On Monday Mr Howard launched his party’s five-point plan to crack-down on Travellers that he claimed are “openly abusing” the UK’s planning rules.
He blamed the Human Rights Act for giving Travellers more power that other citizens, and said he would either reform the act or do away with it entirely.
But his comments have come under fire from Travellers groups for stirring up-prejudice, from the Liberal Democrats for “opportunism” and Labour MP Kevin McNamara told BBC News 24 that there was a “whiff of the gas chambers here.”
Speaking in London today, Mr Howard said that a small minority of Travellers are “openly abusing our planning system” and that minority was using the Human Rights Act to ‘bend’ the law and build houses wherever they wanted, he claimed.
The plan’s key points include reviewing or repealing the Human Rights Act, giving councils powers to rapidly remove caravans, allowing local authorities to purchase land compulsorily where the land was the land was the subject of a continuing breach of a Stop Notice, a greater say for local people on where sites go and encouraging police and councils to deal with “trespass by travellers”.
But Mr Howard came in for a rough ride at the accompanying press conference, with a succession of senior journalists lining up to ask whether his proposals were racist.
Mr Howard sharply denied the charge, saying the issue “has nothing to do with race” and was instead a matter of “standing up for the right values” and “making sure people comply with the law”.
He called for an “honest” debate on Traveller camps, rather than what he claimed was the “vulgar abuse” the Conservatives had been subjected to since raising the issue.
The Conservative leader also denied that he had personally contributed to the problem when the last Conservative government removed the requirement for local authorities to provide sites for Travellers.
Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrats local government spokesman said that Mr Howard’s comments were the “height of hypocrisy” and claimed that until recently the Conservatives had been supporting a cross-party approach on the issue.
Mr Davey said: “Michael Howard bandwagon opportunism has led him into hypocrisy of new heights. As Home Secretary it was Michael Howard who did most to reduce the number of legal traveller sites.”
“The Tories had been cooperating on cross party solutions, Tory spokesmen had been welcoming new changes to planning law and the Tory led LGA had been supporting cross party ideas. Michael Howard is either misinformed or stoking fear and prejudice.
“Mr Howard has failed to answer the question of how the Tories will provide legal sites for travellers. Where is he planning to put travellers? Is it in prison, on their fantasy island with asylum seekers or somewhere else? Until he answers these questions his proposals are not credible”
The Government points out that it has already tightened up enforcement provisions to enable councils to impose Temporary Stop Notices on development.
