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Key London mayor aide quits over race row

by Dave Keating | June 22, 2008 at 11:24 pm

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A key aid to new London mayor Boris Johnson has been forced to resign after making disparaging remarks about people from the Carribean. The issue highlights a continued problem for the new mayor's relationship with minority communities, as Johnson himself has been accused of penning racist writings and making racially insensitive comments in the past.

A senior Australian adviser to London Mayor Boris Johnson has been forced to resign in a race row after he made disparaging remarks about people from the Caribbean.

James McGrath, 34, quit after suggesting older African-Caribbean people should return to the West Indies if they did not like the new mayor.

Asked in a tape-recorded interview if Johnson's mayoral victory would trigger an exodus of immigrants from the UK to the Caribbean, he replied: "Well, let them go if they don't like it here."

McGrath, the mayor's deputy chief of staff who hails from the north Australian state of Queensland, made the comment in a meeting last month with Marc Wadsworth, a black activist and London-based journalist.

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liamssoft

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 04:23 on June 23rd, 2008

Dave Keating, I like this story. It's good stuff. James McGrath's decision to resign was right, there is no room for racist in London,s Government. The position for deputy chief of staff would be best held by a local person who is able to communicate on equal terms with all colours and races. Black people are a very important part of the capital.