Tory MP's link to far-right magazine renews race row

The Conservative Party was facing a new race row last night because one its senior MPs has failed to sever his links with a far-right, anti-immigrant magazine.

Andrew Hunter, MP for Basingstoke and a former Northern Ireland spokesman for the party, is described as a patron in the latest issue of Right Now! magazine.

The revelation comes just days after Iain Duncan Smith, the Tory leader, sacked Ann Winterton from the Shadow Cabinet for telling a racist joke.

Mr Hunter was forced to resign as deputy chairman of the far-right Monday Club last October, a group that has advocated voluntary repatriation of ethnic minorities.

The most recent issue of Right Now! features a front-page predicting "The coming confrontation with Islam" and an article claiming "a process of deracination lies at the root of this country's ills, including mass immigration and its consequences". It refers to the "problems created by the Muslim presence" and states that Muslims "cannot become Englishmen or Britons in any sense other than the technical".

Mr Hunter told The Independent that Right Now! was "an excellent magazine". He said: "I'm an historic patron and I have been trying to give it moral encouragement, but I have not recently given any support in cash or kind."

Derek Turner, its editor, said the Tory leadership's criticism led to a rise in subscriptions from disaffected Tories. "Terms like 'extreme' are used against us and they are a moveable feast. We do have a full range of views in the magazine," he said.