Dear Lisa,
William Gore, your deputy
managing editor, has sent me a transcript of my interview by Jamie Merrill though not the second part which I would also
like please.
I'm grateful to you for this. I should have been told that I was
being recorded as a matter of practice and courtesy, I wasn't but at least this part of the tape
indicates what I did say though the wording remains curious to me "sex
pedophiles" isn't a combination I'd use and I don't know what reservations
were made later.
But this isn't the point of my concern. What I said was not a
Natalie Bennett moment but a joke. It was clearly intended as a joke and
something no one who knew me or was in their right minds could or should have
assumed to be true. My intention was clearly to make a point which a rather
obtuse reporter didn't seem to understand that UKIP isn't going to win Grimsby,
can't win Grimsby, and shouldn't be puffed up as if they might win Grimsby.
I won't go over all the
reasons again though I did to Merrill but it is surely not responsible journalism to take an illustrative
orbiter dicta and inflate it into the article because his original argument
that he set out to push has been destroyed. By projecting a joke as my view and then feeding it to the
candidates to react with shock and horror he has defamed me, made the Labour
Party look cynical, and damaged Grimsby's reputation, as well as that of our new
candidate
Let me make it clear. I have never believed or acted on the view
that Labour can just select anyone and win. I have never felt the disrespect for
Grimsby's electors that that view implies. On the contrary I have always treated
them, as Tony Crosland did, as the real England, the salt of the earth, and
people to be treated with respect and fairness. Their interests lie with Labour
which offers more hope of growth, expansion, and betterment than do the Tories
but they haven't been fairly treated by any party and there is a fed up
proportion as a result.
For the purpose of sexing up a half baked thesis your reporter
has damaged me, my relationship with Grimsby, and Labour's prospects. A
responsible paper would give me the right of reply to make this clear.
Yours sincerely,
Austin Mitchell MP
Chair, NUJ parliamentary group
No comments:
Post a Comment