Labour’s European head rounds on UKIP
Gary Titley, the Labour leader in the European Parliament has rounded on the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), accusing them of being the “BNP in suits”.
In his address to the Labour Party conference, Mr Titley admitted that the European elections were disappointing for Labour, but said that “government parties right across Europe got hammered.”
He attacked the Conservative leader Michael Howard as inconsistent, and said he had managed the “remarkable achievement” of being the only opposition party in Europe to lose the election. Mr Titley was also disparaging of the Liberal Democrats, who he accused of “supporting a cause at one end of your street and opposing it at the other” and “wallowing in the tragedies of Iraq”.
However, he reserved most of his ire for UKIP who he referred to as the “BNP in suits and with posh accents” and a “collection of paranoid and backwards middle Englanders”.
In a later passage of the speech, he said the battle for the country was beginning and made a further thinly veiled reference to UKIP in which, without mentioning them by name, he said that the “blatant racism that we saw from some parties in the European elections is not only a national disgrace, it is a recipe for destroying our country”.
The battle, Mr Titley said, is now between those who want to hide from the modern world and those who want to embrace it. He added: “Isolationism will not halt globalisation, it will only condemn us to the margins.”
The strength of his comments mark a change in Labour’s attitude to UKIP, whom it has previously simply dismissed.
Responding to the comments, UKIP spokesman Quintin Williamson told politics.co.uk that the comment about “backwards middle Englanders” was an “old jibe” that “no-one believes”.
He went on to say, there is “nothing backward about trying to take control of our own domestic, defence and environmental issues”.
Mr Williamson claimed that in fact the Labour Party was the “BNP in boiler suits”, alleging that they had dealings with the BNP in Burnley. All of the mainstream parties, however, reject any charges that they have had any dealings in Burnley with the BNP. Mr Williamson’s comments relate the circumstances on Burnley council, where the BNP have six council seats. With no party in overall control, the political situation is somewhat confusing, and the council has yet to appoint a ruling executive or take any significant decisions.
