Winnifrith and the Muslims

In his repeated rants about the “extremists who claim to act in the name of the prophet”, Tom Winnifrith has been careful to point out that they represent “a small minority” and that “Most Moslems are great folk”.

“It is terrible that all Moslems are tarred with the same brush,” says Liberal Tom, adding: “To stop this it would help if the vast majority of Moslems who are good folk stood up and said ‘we do not want to hang gays, sweep all the Jews into the sea, see political prisoners shot to celebrate Eid but do believe in free speech’.”

That was last year. This year, the liberalism wobbled a bit with these words: "nearly all Muslims despise terror attacks in Europe but nearly all terror attacks in Europe are carried out by Muslims”.

But Winnifrith’s liberal credentials have been under attack before. It is not generally remembered that back in 1993, he was one of three members expelled from the Liberal Democrat party for “pandering to racism”.

The expulsions were ordered after the Lib-Dem leader of the time, Paddy Ashdown, appointed Lord Lester QC to lead a seven-strong committee of inquiry into allegations that leaflets distributed by Winnifrith and others in the East end of London were an incitement to racial hatred.

The allegations were serious enough to prompt Attorney General Sir Nicholas Lyell to ask the Metropolitan Police to look into them. After the British National Party won a seat in Tower Hamlets in 1993, the Lib-Dems were accused of attempting to capitalise on the racist climate in the borough with leaflet material which Ashdown admitted “"could lend itself to a racist interpretation". The atmosphere was particularly highly-charged as the election followed soon after the murder of Stephen Lawrence.

As The Independent (which despite its pro-Lib-Dem sympathies made no attempt to defend the accused) reported on 18 December 1993: “The inquiry report criticised the party leadership, saying it found 'ample evidence' that the party at federal, national and regional levels had been aware of problems in Tower Hamlets since 1990.

'It is also clear that despite a number of suggestions to this end, no effective concerted action has been taken at any time to ensure these problems were fully and effectively resolved,' it said.

The use of Liberal Democrat 'focus' leaflets had involved 'exploitation of the local prejudice against immigrants in the allocation of housing in order to win votes'.

It condemned the conduct of Mr Shaw, Mr Mathews and Mr Winnifrith, but the committee said it was unfortunate that action was not taken after Mr Harris had taken seven Liberals to court for issuing a fake Labour leaflet in the May 1990 elections. [The leaflet] alleged that if elected Labour would rehouse homeless Bangladeshis in Tower Hamlets.

The report found that Liberal campaign statements such as 'Liberals fight for local people' or 'Liberals fight for those who survived the Blitz' were construed as racist.”

Tom was not happy. He did not deny his role but felt that others should be taken down with him.“Mr Winnifrith accused the Liberal Democrat inquiry team of using him as a scapegoat, a charge denied by Lord Lester.

'I played a part in two leaflets. There were many senior figures in Tower Hamlets Liberals who played a part,' he said.

'It's quite clear that the small guy is dispensable. That is me. I am being scapegoated because I am dispensable and they are not,' he said in a BBC Radio interview.

Exposing the bitterness against Lord Lester's team, he accused those who wrote the report of 'living in the shires and leafy suburbs sipping claret'.

'We won this borough without help from the national party. They've been a nightmare ever since we got involved with them. It's up to each individual person and their conscience whether they can accept this pile of shit that Lord Lester had produced'.”

In January 1994, reported The Independent, Winnifrith attempted to fight the expulsion abut at a metting of the Liberal Democrat London executive, it was revealed that:“Mr Winnifrith was responsible for a leaflet depicting a black boxer, which the inquiry team found suggested that black people were responsible for problem estates where 'survivors of the Blitz' lived in fear for their lives. It was distributed in the Isle of Dogs during last autumn's Millwall by- election, which was won by the British National Party.”

So offensive was the leaflet that the BNP candidate accused the Liberal Democrat campaign of stealing his policies. In the event, though, the campaign failed: the Lib-Dems came third and Winnifrith & co were chucked out.