Expenses Row MP Sorry for Nazi Slur

Chloe Markowicz - Thursday 5th November 2009


Conservative MP David Wilshire

Jewish leaders have condemned remarks by a Tory MP who equated the Nazis' killing of Jews to the treatment of MPs over the expenses scandal.

David Wilshire, MP for Spelthorne in Surrey, wrote in an email to constituents: "The witch-hunt against MPs in general will undermine democracy. It will weaken Parliament, handing yet more power to governments. Branding a whole group of people as undesirables led to Hitler's gas chambers."

Top stories

email this page to a friend print this page email the editor buy this content Bookmark and Share
Wilshire has since apologised for his comments following pressure from Conservative leader David Cameron, who called the remarks "frankly ludicrous". Cameron said: "MPs have got to understand that the public do not have confidence in our expenses system. It needs to change and MPs need to understand that."

Stuart Polak, Chief Executive of the Conservative Friends of Israel, called Wilshire's comments "ill-judged and unacceptable". He said: "While I have sympathy for many MPs who are under real pressure due to some unacceptable behaviour by a few of their colleagues, I think David's comments are ill-judged and unacceptable. People should not underestimate the pressure some MPs are under and I have no doubt that he would be unlikely to repeat the comparison."

Lee Scott, Conservative MP for Ilford North, spoke out against his colleague's comments but commended him for apologising. "His words were very foolish and outrageous," Scott told the Jewish News. "He has apologised and rightly so."
In a statement, Wilshire denied he had equated the MP expenses scandal with the Holocaust.

He said he had expressed himself "clumsily" and apologised for any "inappropriate" remarks that could have upset people. He added he was replying to emails containing death threats.

He said: "In a reply to very unpleasant emails from about half a dozen people I did refer to the Holocaust. I was not seeking to equate what is happening to MPs with the Holocaust.

"I was simply warning that history teaches that the sentiments expressed in such emails can lead to horrendous consequences.

"If anyone finds my response to these emails inappropriate I apologise unreservedly. The last thing I want to do is upset anyone. However, all these emails assumed a newspaper's untested allegations were proof of guilt."

He added: "Among the unpleasant things said were that I should immediately be taken out and strung up from a lamp post, that the sender was coming to shoot me and that most MPs were corrupt and ought to be disposed of.

"I continue to believe that the two general anxieties I raised in my email need to be taken very seriously (however clumsily I might have expressed them in the first place)."

Wilshire announced he would be stepping down as an MP last month after reports surfaced that he had allegedly paid more than Ł100,000 of taxpayer-funded parliamentary allowances into his own company.

Read the latest copy of The Jewish News Online by clicking here.

Bookmark and Share