PM under fire for not sacking candidate who wrote 'racist' articles

The prime minister has been criticised for refusing to sack his former aide after it emerged the Conservative party candidate wrote in the Spectator, under Boris Johnson’s editorship, that immigrants were to blame for bringing germs and HIV to the UK.

Anthony Browne, a former lobbyist for the British Bankers’ Association and journalist for the Times and Observer, is the Tory candidate in South Cambridgeshire, the safe seat previously represented by Heidi Allen, who left the party over its stance on Brexit.

In an article for the Spectator, written in 2002 when Johnson was editing the magazine, Browne said: “It is not through letting in terrorists that the government’s policy of mass migration – especially from the third world – will claim the most lives. It is through letting in too many germs.”

Browne also suggested that “curbing the influx of HIV immigrants” would be a better public health approach to tackling HIV than telling people to wear condoms.

The shadow home secretary, Diane Abbott, said it came as no surprise that the Conservative party had decided to stick by Browne as the prime minister would have approved the “despicable words” as the magazine’s editor.

“Johnson published white supremacist articles, in which the author boasted about being an antisemite, argued that black people have lower IQs and described black people as ‘thugs’,” she said.

“Johnson is responsible for publishing this racist filth, which has fuelled prejudice and division in our country, and he owes all ethnic minorities in our country a long overdue apology.”

Labour’s call came shortly ahead of the 4pm deadline on Thursday to register or withdraw as a candidate in the general election. After that deadline it was too late for the Conservative party to select someone else to stand in the seat.

Browne is one of a string of political advisers with links to Johnson’s administration to have been selected as candidates in Conservative safe seats. Danny Kruger, one of the prime minister’s current policy chiefs, will stand in the Wiltshire seat of Devizes, and James Wild, a senior special adviser to Johnson, was selected earlier this week to stand in West Norfolk.

Unlike Browne, other Conservative candidates have been swiftly removed after controversies over their previous comments. Nick Conrad withdrew from the safe Norfolk seat of Broadland following criticism of his 2014 statement that women should keep their “knickers on” to avoid rape. Antony Calvert withdrew from the race in the target seat of Wakefield after offensive social media posts came to light, including one in which he referred to London as “Londonistan”.

Browne was previously forced to address his comments when he became a policy director for Johnson when he was mayor of London. He said he had gone through a “phase of being deliberately contrary and deliberately provocative”.

“I do very much regret any offence caused by any past newspaper articles. It really never was my intention to cause offence, but to provoke debate,” he said. “The articles, which I deeply regret writing, also don’t give a fair reflection of my views. I want to make clear that I am emphatically not anti-immigration.”

A Conservative party spokesperson said: “These comments were made over 15 years ago, Anthony Browne has apologised for these comments and sincerely regrets them.”

The party has been hit by a barrage of allegations of racism and islamophobia in recent days. On Tuesday, the Guardian revealed that 25 sitting and former Conservative councillors had posted offensive material on social media.

The posts included calls for mosques to be banned, claims the faith wants to “turn the world Muslim”, referring to its followers as “barbarians” and “the enemy within”. After being presented with the evidence, the party suspended all those who were still members pending an investigation.

On Thursday, a Conservative association deputy chairman in Stourbridge in the West Midlands resigned over Islamophobia in the local party. Kyle Pedley told the BBC he had witnessed a Muslim Tory council candidate face a “barrage of questioning” over his religion and race.

Naz Shah, the shadow equalities minister, said the levels of racism in the Tory ranks was absolutely terrifying. “Muslim people are afraid of what might happen if Boris Johnson’s Conservatives win this election,” she said, adding that the party should take action against the Stourbridge Conservative association.

Spokespeople for the Conservative party have previously responded to allegations of Islamophobia within its ranks by saying that it responds to discrimination of any kind swiftly and takes it extremely seriously.

“The Conservative party will never stand by when it comes to prejudice and discrimination of any kind,” they said. “That’s why we are already establishing the terms of an investigation to make sure that such instances are isolated and robust processes are in place to stamp them out as and when they occur.”