Ee by gaffe! Dave’s insult to Yorkshire
The people there ‘hate each other’, jokes PM
IT’S a region where folk are known for their no-nonsense, straight-talking style.
But when the Prime Minister was picked up on a microphone insulting his Yorkshire hosts, it was clear his blunt comments were not for public consumption.
Preparing to make a speech to business men and women in Leeds, David Cameron was apparently rehearsing arguments over regional devolution with an aide in a side room when he committed the classic politician’s gaffe – forgetting he had been miked up for TV cameras.
As a result, he was overheard saying: ‘We just thought people in Yorkshire hated everyone else, we didn’t realise they hated each other so much.’
The comment is believed to have been a light-hearted reference to the number of devolution proposals submitted by authorities in Yorkshire and their failure to agree the best approach. Mr Cameron thought his microphone was off and was clearly embarrassed to be told it had been recorded and broadcast to the nation.
Thankfully for the Prime Minister, he has already won the general election – unlike his predecessor Gordon Brown who was recorded during the 2010 campaign describing a voter he had just spoken to about immigration as a ‘bigoted woman’. He later apologised to Gillian Duffy, 65, but went on to lose the election.
Yesterday after being told about the blunder, Mr Cameron bravely pressed ahead with a scheduled visit to Headingley to watch England play Australia in the one-day international. And within min- utes, he was confessing his sins to two of the greatest living Yorkshiremen, Geoffrey Boycott and former umpire Dickie Bird.
Speaking on the BBC’s Test Match Special, Mr Cameron said he had been ‘absolved’ by the famous Yorkshire pair and insisted his comments were a ‘total joke’. He said: ‘One of my aides said to me there were about five or six different bids from Yorkshire for devolution. I joked to say I thought Yorkshiremen had it in for everyone else and not for each other or words to that effect.’
Mr Cameron said he would probably now get ‘jip’ for his outburst, but Boycott – who regularly writes letters to the premier - had accepted his words were in jest.
West Yorkshire Combined Authority leader Peter Box, who is involved in the devolution bid from the Leeds City Region, described Mr Cameron’s comments as ‘amusing’. He added: ‘There’s some truth in it. We’re quite tribal, we’re competitive within Yorkshire.’
Other ordinary Yorkshiremen were predictably blunt. Anthony Wild, 44, a construction company owner from Leeds, said: ‘We are God’s own county and we look after each other. He needs to keep his opinions in London, not Leeds.’
The micropohone gaffe was not Mr Cameron’s first. He was famously caught revealing how the Queen ‘purred’ with pleasure when he told her Scots had rejected independence. Ulster row over chillaxing PM – Page 25
‘There’s some truth in it’