The Politician: Tory sacked for attack on black soldiers

David Cameron tried to bury the Conservatives' image as the "nasty party" by sacking a frontbench spokesman who claimed that black soldiers invented allegations of racism to cover up the fact they were "idle" and "useless".

Patrick Mercer, a former army colonel, said being called a "black bastard" was part and parcel of life for ethnic minorities in the armed forces. He paid the price for his outspoken comments by losing his post as the Opposition spokesman on homeland security.

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Mr Cameron, who is determined to stamp out any suggestion of racism as part of his drive to widen his party's appeal, did not believe Mr Mercer was being racist but judged that he was adopting a "laissez faire" attitude towards racism. Mr Mercer accepted his fate but denied he had ever been complacent about racism.

The Tory leader's tough stance provoked criticism from party activists in Mr Mercer's Newark constituency. Sheelagh Hamilton, who chairs the local Conservative Association, said the sacking was unfair. "I am extremely angry that what has been said has been taken out of context and David Cameron has behaved precipitously. I think it's all been done in a huge amount of haste," she said.

Mr Mercer sparked the controversy when he spoke to the Times Online website about the formation of a new anti-racism trade union being set up by servicemen from former colonial countries, which he described as " complete and utter rot".

He went on: "I came across a lot of ethnic minority soldiers who were idle and useless, but who used racism as cover for their misdemeanours."

Mr Cameron said: "I think they are shocking remarks, I think they are completely unacceptable. I made that clear and I think the right action is for Patrick to return to the back benches. It is no good making excuses for racism. It isn't right, it isn't defendable, it isn't acceptable in any institution and we all have to make a very clear stand about that."

Labour MPs claimed racism was still alive in the Conservative Party and pointed out that officials had initially dismissed Mr Mercer's remarks as a personal matter. But Mr Cameron's aides said he dismissed the frontbencher in a telephone call as soon as he had read his comments in full.

Mr Mercer said he "deeply regretted" the offence his comments had caused but stopped short of a full apology. "I had the privilege to command soldiers from across the east Midlands, of whom many came from racial minorities," he said. "It was a matter of great pride to me that racial minorities prospered inside the unit, and, indeed at one stage all of my company sergeant majors were black. What I have said is clearly misjudged and I can only apologise if I have embarrassed in any way those fine men whom I commanded. I have no hesitation in resigning my frontbench appointment."

Former corporal Leroy Hutchinson, who served under Mr Mercer for 12 years, said: "I was promoted under his command. He never tolerated racism in the battalion and not a single one of his men would consider him to be racist."

Mr Cameron's parliamentary private secretary, Desmond Swayne, said last night that Mr Mercer's comments were not racist.

"What he did, however, was he created an impression that racism is somehow an acceptable, part of the natural background in the Army," he told BBC2's Newsnight. "[Racism] is always and everywhere a poison and the chain of command are stamping it out.."

An ally of David Davis, the shadow Home Secretary, Mr Mercer was seen at Westminster as a "natural" in his homeland security brief. He was frustrated at not winning promotion to the Shadow Cabinet.