PM May withdraws whip from Morris
A TORY MP was effectively sacked yesterday for using the expression “n ***** in the woodpile” at a meeting of Brexit supporters.
PM Theresa May removed the party whip from Newton Abbot MP Anne Marie Morris after she was recorded making the racist remark to fellow Eurosceptics at the exclusive East India Club in St James’s Square, central London.
None of those at the meeting – including Tory MPs Bill Cash and John Redwood – called her out for using the “N-word” while discussing the prospect of Britain leaving the EU with no deal.
Morris was taped by a reporter for the Huffington Post website saying that just seven per cent of financial services in the UK would be affected.
She went on: “There will be many people who’ll challenge that but my response and my request is look at the detail. It isn’t all doom and gloom.
“Now we get to the real n ***** in the woodpile which is in two years what happens if there is no deal?”
The comments came at the launch of a report into the future for the UK’s financial sector after Brexit. Morris issued a half-hearted apology only after being confronted by journalists.
She said: “The comment was totally unintentional. I apologise unreservedly for any offence caused.”
But May was forced to remove the party whip from Morris after a storm of protest from opposition MPs.
Labour MP Chuka Umunna tweeted: “Speechless, not just at the remark being made but also at the reported lack of a reaction from the Tories there. Appalling.”
Shadow Communities Secretary Andrew Gwynne added: “Theresa May once spoke about changing the Tories’ ‘nasty party’ tag. If she’s serious, she will apologise and act immediately.”
And Lib Dem leader Tim Farron said: “This disgusting comment belongs in the era of the Jim Crow laws and has no place in our Parliament.”
Withdrawing the whip from Morris means the PM will limp on with an official working Commons majority of just 12 – although Morris is unlikely to vote against the Government.