Straw faces inquiry into gypsy slurs

POLICE MAY investigate whether an outspoken attack on travellers by the Home Secretary, Jack Straw, was a criminal offence under public order legislation. Mr Straw said on radio that groups of travellers were causing havoc in communities, trading on a sentimental "gypsy" image while committing serious crimes.

"Many of these so-called travellers seem to think it's perfectly OK for them to cause mayhem in an area, to go burgling, thieving, breaking into vehicles, causing all kinds of trouble, including defecating in the doorways of firms and so on, and getting away with it," Mr Straw told BBC Radio West Midlands.

"Travellers have traded on the sentiment, they've masqueraded as law- abiding gypsies, when many are not."

The Home Office yesterday defended his comments - made on 22 July - saying he was attacking criminal gangs of travellers, not gypsies as a racial group. But earlier this week, traveller support groups issued formal complaints to the Commission for Racial Equality and the Home Office, saying the words were an incitement to racial hatred.

Susan Alexander, the co-ordinator of Brighton-based Friends, Families and Travellers, said: "Jack Straw's comments promote institutional racism in the highest levels of government. They undermine the validity of the government's own good practice guidelines for local authorities and police when dealing with unauthorised encampments."

The guidelines, issued last October, stressed the need for tolerance and gave a legal definition of gypsies. Ms Alexander added: "Mr Straw's comments are contrary to the guidelines and to the definition because he is attempting to distinguish between gypsies and other travellers."

The Home Office has told Friends, Families and Travellers the complaint is not a matter for the Commission for Racial Equality but may constitute a possible breach of section three of the Public Order Act 1968.

Civil servants are still considering whether to refer the matter to the relevant police authority, the Special Branch of Scotland Yard, which investigates public order issues that have raised national concern.

But there was support from Mr Straw from the shadow Home Secretary, Ann Widdecombe. "As long as he is saying they apply to some and not all travellers, as long as he was restricting his remarks they are more understandable," she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"He's the Home Secretary, he's a statesman and he's got to be very careful to put his remarks in context. He should have made that extremely clear and if he failed to make it clear he wasn't careful enough. But I certainly would not quarrel with his remarks."

In Kent, tension remains high, after weekend clashes with knives between residents and asylum-seekers who include Roma gypsies left 15 people wounded. One man of 25 from Dover was arrested yesterday and three men who had been held for questioning were released on police bail.