Boris Johnson: No apology over ‘leftie crap’ remarks.
The outspoken mayor said he won’t be issuing an apology, despite coming under pressure over the past week to retract the remarks he made in a newspaper interview, in which he linked the city’s annual St Patrick’s Day gala dinner to Sinn Féin and dismissed the celebrations as “leftie crap”.
Mr Johnson was referring to a black-tie event that was in the past attended by prominent Irish people such as Bob Geldof and the Irish Ambassador to Britain but that was cancelled by his office in 2009 to save money.
He said in the interview with the New Statesman magazine: “I’ll tell you what makes me angry... spending £20,000 on a dinner at the Dorchester (hotel) for Sinn Féin.” But the comments have been interpreted by many in the British capital’s estimated 200,000 Irish population as ill-judged and offensive and prompted growing calls from Irish community leaders for him to issue an apology.
Despite coming under increasing fire, Mr Johnson insisted he had no regrets. A spokesperson for the mayor said “they have nothing further to add” and stressed the comments were “about the use of public resources.” A further statement stressed that the mayor “does support London’s St Patrick’s Day celebrations.”
However, Mr Johnson’s comments could come back to haunt him and lose him key votes in the city’s Mayoral elections on May 3. Many influential politicians, business figures and celebrities, including chef Richard Corrigan and actor Adrian Dunbar, have publicly condemned his comments.
Vice-chair of the Labour Party Irish Society, Christine Quigley, said: “Boris should get his facts straight. The annual St Patrick’s Day event he refers to was a self-financing community event attended by a wide range of Irish actors, politicians from every party, community figures and celebrities. It did not cost the taxpayer £20,000 and it was not a Sinn Féin event.”
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