British Leader Condemns Racist Rift Among Tories

British Prime Minister John Major moved quickly Tuesday to quell an embarrassing racial outbreak among some Conservatives over the selection of a black candidate in their district in the next election.

“Racism has no place in the Conservative Party,” Major said during the prime minister’s question time before the House of Commons.

His staunch stand was meant to defuse the sudden row that broke out Monday over the selection by Conservatives in Cheltenham, a city in Gloucestershire, of John Taylor, a 38-year-old, British-born black lawyer.

Taylor has been working as a minority policy adviser to the Home Office in London and previously was a local city councilor in his hometown of Solihull in the West Midlands between Birmingham and Coventry.

The Conservative Party Central Office, in an effort to get more minority Britons into Parliament, suggested Taylor to the Cheltenham Tories, who selected him as the candidate in their constituency in the next general election.

There are no black Tory members of Parliament. And some members of the Cheltenham constituency association objected that he is an outsider in a city with few blacks.

On Monday, Cheltenham businessman Bill Galbraith, a cousin of Britain’s junior Scottish secretary, the Earl of Strathclyde, objected publicly to Taylor as a “bloody nigger.”

Galbraith, 54, refused to withdraw his remarks Tuesday even though enveloped by a storm of protest, saying, “I don’t think having (a black) as candidate is good for our town.”

Galbraith’s remarks were condemned by Monica Drinkwater, head of the Cheltenham Conservative Assn., who said, “I can only apologize on behalf of the members of the Conservative Party in Cheltenham, who would totally dissociate themselves and would be ashamed of such remarks.”

Norman Tebbit, former Conservative Party chairman, called Galbraith’s comments--which found some private support among the town’s Tories--the “rantings of a man who holds no position or power within the party” and offered Taylor his full support.

Backing up the prime minister’s criticism of racism Tuesday, Chris Patten, party chairman of the Conservatives, who was appointed by Major last week, said he would not want to work in the next campaign with anyone who “shares such views.”

It is common in Britain for local associations to select candidates for Parliament who do not live in the constituencies.