Sorry Aleppo, I didn’t mean to compare you to Taunton

THE Tory MP who compared Taunton in Somerset to war-torn Aleppo has made an apology – to the Syrian city.

Ian Liddell-Grainger caused a storm with his comments during a Commons debate on the future of the high street last week.

Describing the boarded-up shops of Taunton town centre, he told MPs it resembled the Middle-Eastern city flattened by eight years of civil war.

After criticism of his ‘extreme’ remarks, Mr Liddell-Grainger said yesterday: ‘It was not my intention to affront innocent residents by comparing Taunton to Syria’s second city. I gladly take this opportunity to offer Aleppo a sincere apology.

‘Life must have been bad under ISIS, barrel-bombed by Bashir Al Assad and blitzed by the Russians. The last thing they needed was comparison with Somerset’s neglected town centre.’

He continued: ‘Aleppo is already being reconstructed. Taunton still bears the scars of years of municipal neglect, bad planning and flat-footed leadership.’