MP Fitzpatrick: Don't call me an Islamophobe

Poplar and Canning Town MP Jim Fitzpatrick was making his way to the entrance from the other side of the room, and greeted the man with a formal handshake.

"Good evening, Councillor", he said, meeting the gaze of a familiar face with an eye on his job. Conservative challenger Tim Archer returned the greeting, and proceeded to quiz him about the guest list for the event long after he'd turned away.

This isn't the first or last time the two candidates will be seen playing political dodgems between now and next year's general election. It may not even be the most bizarre, although there was something odd about seeing a small group of Conservative and Respect members taking holiday snaps outside the entrance of Canary Wharf's East Wintergarden on a Monday evening. But it did focus on a potentially explosive issue which could win or lose the hearts and minds of the revised Poplar and Limehouse constituency.

Jim Fitzpatrick, the current farming minister who has represented the borough since 1997, has smelled the rancid whiff of a racial smear swirling around his campaign, and hoped that a press conference would help clear the air.

The Labour incumbent's problem stems from an incident back in August, in which he raised questions about forced segregation after leaving a Muslim constituent's wedding at the London Muslim Centre.

Mr Fitzpatrick told press at the time that he had been attending such weddings for years, but had only recently noticed a rise in this "strict" approach to seating plans. He specifically highlighted the "stranglehold" of the Islamic Forum of Europe as a possible reason for this development.

Tower Hamlets is home to a variety of cultures, so the exact nature of Mr Fitzpatrick's objections was widely discussed in the weeks following his action. This discussion has now birthed a quintet of leaflets which have been sent out into the borough, accusing the MP of Islamophobia and of a desire to introduce a law banning segregated Muslim weddings.

A Facebook campaign - entitled United Against Jim Fitzpatrick's Divisive Politics - has also now amassed nearly 1,000 members.

Fearful of the damage that such allegations could have on his standing, Mr Fitzpatrick booked a room to the side of the East Wintergarden and spent a week inviting members of the Bangladeshi media to Canary Wharf to lay out his position. The main room was already swathed in stalls for the next day's job fair.

Initially, The Wharf was told Monday's event was solely "for Bangladeshi media" and that the 40-capacity room was full. But Mr Fitzpatrick's staff did allow a reporter and photographer to enter when they decided space was available.

By then, several members of the opposition parties were outside, smiling for photographs and loudly questioning the select nature of the guest list while Labour councillors such as Denise Jones, Abdal Ullah and Marc Francis filed in.

Blackwall and Cubitt Town councillor Tim Archer later accused the MP of handling the original walkout in a "cackhanded" way, and described this week's press conference as a "halfhearted segregated apology".

He said: "You should be able to invite all members of the press and not carve up society into groups. I think it's wrong and a very cynical way to communicate.

"People are suspicious about why he should have a special message for the Bangladeshi media and not for everyone."

As TV crews set up their cameras and the guests waited for late-comers, Mr Fitzpatrick apologised for the scenes outside, which he dubbed "silly and malicious". Pictures of the VSO trip that he and his wife had taken to a Bangladesh HIV/Aids centre last summer were fixed on the rim of the table behind him, and a member of his team did the rounds of the seats, handing out a page-long flyer listing the mosques he had assisted over the last 12 years.

He said: "I'm supposed to be legislating against traditional Muslim weddings. There's no bill, there's no legislation. It's all lies.

"I put my record out to public examination and I want to know if it makes me sound like an Islamophobe. Judge me on my record, not on smears.

"We've done casework for thousands of Bangladeshi constituents, on their problems with immigrations, visas, housing benefits, anti-social behaviour and health issues.

"We've not always been successful but we've always tried hard and with the help of the Labour council we've been successful on whole number of occasions.

"I've been trying to learn Sylheti. It's probably not as good as it should be and I've been learning for too long. But I'll continue. We went volunteering in Bangladesh and Dakar. What we're trying to do as a party is to build a good life in Tower Hamlets for all people.

"I've spent my full adult life in the trenches fighting fascism. I've been on the streets against the National Front and the BNP and to appear on website pages next to them is insulting.

"It would be nice to know who is putting these leaflets out. It's a measure of their cowardice that they remain in the shadows asking for people to speak out against me."

Tower Hamlets Council leader Lutfur Rahman had apparently given up an "important family appointment" to back Mr Fitzpatrick. While his speech was more of a celebration of his "great party" than of his MP, he declared he had "no problem" with working with him.

He said: "I joined this great party because I believe in its core values of social justice, prosperity and gaining strong services for all, regardless of race, colour and creed.

"I have found Jim very supportive of this great party and of this council since I've been a leader. I have no problem with working with him in future years."

However, his response to any criticisms that may have been made of the Islamic Forum of Europe was more carefully worded, and was repeated with little variation despite further questioning.

He said: "Our council should work with any organisation that works within the law and subscribes to the mainstream values that our great party has.

"I will make it quite clear that I'll work with any organisation that subscribes to the core values that I believe in."

Mr Fitzpatrick also addressed the news that the Parliamentary Standards Board was investigating complaints that he had claimed back the cost of mail-shots advertising a coffee morning on expenses.

He contended that the coffee morning was arranged to give constituents a forum to discuss anti-social behaviour with police, and that his presence meant he could also assist them with their problems.

He said: "I didn't make it a big secret, I told the Conservatives what was happening and they didn't come. They waited three months and put in an official complaint.

"I've every confidence the board will find no case to answer. I'm not worried about that because if I'm guilty of helping my constituents with anti-social behaviour, then I'll plead guilty."

The MP was also not shy about defending his views, holding an animated conversation with members of the Bengali press on his wedding walk-out after the conference.

While he admitted the way it had been handled was "clumsy", he maintained that there had been "a shift in culture and opinion, in attitude and atmosphere" but that he still received invitations to Muslim weddings across the borough.

Mr Fitzpatrick added that he would have sent his apologies and not attended had he known about the segregation in advance. He also said he had apologised to the married couple for using their wedding as a forum to raise the issue.

He said: "We don't want to offend anyone."

The direct and speedy nature of the press conference indicated that the MP was wary of the impact of racial allegations on his campaign. He talked of a "history of lies against Labour candidates in Tower Hamlets", citing Oona King and Michael Keith as examples.

He said: "In the 2005 election, Oona King faced allegations that she was going to ban Halal meat.

"That was raised six weeks before the election and we couldn't get over it. I fully anticipate there will be a smear campaign against me between now and next May. It's important to get it out in the open now.

"We want people to look at the smears now and see them for the lies they are. I'm asking them to use their own knowledge of me and their own experience of me.

"I think it's a measure of the importance that the opposition think the allegations will have for my support that they want to do everything they can to stop me from setting the record straight. Around 20 of them thought the best way to spend a Monday night was to picket my press conference."

While Mr Fitzpatrick claimed ignorance of the authorship of many of the leaflets, he asserted that one was being printed by ballot-box rivals Respect. In fact, it was being waved outside by several members, printed in a mock-newspaper format accusing the MP of being a "wedding wrecker" and "fanning the flames of hate". At one point, a group of four or five Canary Wharf security guards arrived and watched the gathering closely.

Cllr Archer admitted that he had left after around half an hour, partly to attend a meeting with the National Housing Federation, but also to escape an "unsavoury" scene.

He said: "At the start it was low-key and a bit of a laugh, just seeing who was coming and going.

"I left because I felt it was getting a bit out of hand and a bit unsavoury. I don't think people in Canary Wharf want to see their politicians jeering and chanting."