Tory candidate faces calls to quit over 'disgusting racism'

A former aide to Boris Johnson is facing calls to stand down as an election candidate after Labour accused him of “disgusting racism” over some of his writings that blamed immigrants for bringing germs and HIV to the UK and accused Muslims of having divided loyalties.

Labour called on the prime minister to personally intervene to stop Anthony Browne from contesting the seat of South Cambridgeshire, saying his writings from 2002 and 2003 were “shocking” and “despicable”.

In an article for the Spectator, Browne wrote: “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.”

He 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.

A book by Browne, Do We Need Mass Immigration?, attributes a catalogue of social ills and health problems to immigration.

It has various passages on the same theme, saying: “The fact that African immigration has overtaken gay sex as the main cause of HIV in Britain is a sign that Europe can no longer ignore the entirely preventable Aids holocaust consuming the continent next door. But the solution is to treat the majority where they live, rather than the small number who can make it to Britain to access HIV treatment on the NHS.”

In a passage about Muslim leaders warning the Iraq war could cause social unrest, he wrote: “Whatever the merits or demerits of war on Iraq, it is hardly a national strength to have a large minority with such divided loyalties during war.”

Browne, a former lobbyist for the British Bankers’ Association and journalist for the Times and Observer, addressed some of the comments when he became a policy director when Johnson was mayor of London, saying he had gone through a “phase of being deliberately contrary and deliberately provocative”.

He said at the time: “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. 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.”

Naz Shah, the shadow women and equalities minister, said: “This is disgusting racism. It’s shocking that someone with such despicable views has been selected to stand for the Conservative party.

“Given his personal relationship with Anthony Browne, Boris Johnson should personally intervene and remove him as a candidate.”

Lady Warsi, a former co-chair of the Conservative party, said the comments were racist and argued that losing the seat’s former MP, Heidi Allen, to the Lib Dems and having her replaced by Browne “perfectly illustrates where we’ve gone wrong as Conservatives”.

The Liberal Democrat candidate for South Cambridgeshire, Ian Sollom, said they were “abhorrent remarks”.

“The fact that the Conservative party are now being represented by candidates like this shows just how divisive and extreme they have become,” he said. “They should urgently consider whether Anthony Browne is a suitable candidate to represent their party in light of these remarks.”

A Conservative party spokesperson said: “These comments were made over 15 years ago, Anthony Browne has apologised for these comments and sincerely regrets them.” Browne did not respond to requests for comment.

Candidates from the Tories, Labour and Lib Dems have all come in for criticism over past comments since the election started, with at least two Tories and one Labour standing down.

On Monday night, the Liberal Democrat candidate for Thurrock, Kevin McNamara, issued an apology and stood down after the party launched an investigation into posts made to his social media allegedly involving homophobic and racist slurs.

Plum seats for Tory advisers

Browne is one of a string of political advisers with links to Johnson’s administration who have landed or are in the running for safe or key target seats for the Tories at the election.

One of Johnson’s current policy chiefs, Danny Kruger, has won the race to stand in the safe Wiltshire seat of Devizes and James Wild, a senior special adviser to the prime minister, is seeking selection for another safe Tory seat, West Norfolk.

Andrew Griffith, a business adviser to the prime minister and former Sky executive who lent Johnson a £9.5m house during his leadership campaign, won the selection in Arundel and South Downs on Monday night.

Dominic Raab’s special adviser, Simon Jupp, is standing in East Devon and Claire Coutinho, an adviser to Rishi Sunak, the chief secretary to the Treasury, is standing in East Surrey.

Several former advisers from previous No 10 regimes have also been selected, including Laura Trott, a former adviser to David Cameron, Mario Creatura, a former adviser to Theresa May, Paul Holmes, who worked for the former party chair Patrick McLoughlin, and Anthony Mangnall, a former aide to William Hague.

Others have not yet been successful at getting seats, including Nick Timothy, May’s former co-chief of staff who was behind her disastrous 2017 manifesto, and Rupert Harrison, a former aide to George Osborne, both of whom were in the running for Devizes.