Duncan Smith ignores calls to force MP to resign from far-right magazine

Iain Dunan Smith, the Conservative leader, was accused of undermining his pledge to root out racism last night after he failed to dissociate his party from a far-right magazine.

Charles Clarke, the Labour Party chairman, called on Mr Duncan Smith to force Andrew Hunter, MP for Basingstoke, to resign as a patron of Right Now!, a magazine that opposes multiculturalism.

Meanwhile, the party's leadership make clear that it would not be removing the suspension of the far-right Monday Club, despite threats of legal action by its members.

Mr Hunter has remained a patron of Right Now! several months after the Tories announced in autumn last year that they would "not tolerate intolerance". The latest issue refers to "problems created by the Muslim presence" and states that Muslims "cannot become Englishmen or Britons in any sense other than the technical".

Conservative Central Office said there were no plans to discipline Mr Hunter, or take action against Right Now! as the party had no formal links with the magazine.

Meanwhile David Davis, Tory chairman, shrugged off threats from Monday Club members that they would reveal "long-standing and potentially embarrassing links" with senior party figures. He rejected calls to meet the rebels.

A Central Office spokesman said the Monday Club would remain "in their current situation for quite a while". "We are committed to an open, tolerant and decent society in which all creeds and colours are respected," he said.

When asked about the magazine and its links to MPs, Mr Duncan Smith's press secretary said: "We are looking at it."

Many leading Tories believe that taking action against Right Now! would "smack of a witchhunt" and believe there is no evidence against it.

Mr Hunter said that although he believed the magazine to be "first rate", he could end his link. "If it were to print articles which I or the party regarded as unacceptable then I would have to ask them to take my name away," he said.

Mr Clarke said: "I wish the Conservatives well in their endeavour to eliminate racism in their midst but they really do need to address Mr Hunter's behaviour."

Martin Salter, Labour MP for Reading West, said: "Andrew Hunter must either be made to resign as a patron of Right Now! or resign from the Tory party. If he does not, Iain Duncan Smith's hand-wringing about being intolerant of intolerance will count for nothing. Rooting out racist opinion is not a witchhunt, it's common decency.

"The Tory leadership makes great play of its abhorrence of racism but betrays itself by its failure to act on Right Now! with a spurious resort to freedom of speech. That kind of language and prevarication was the stuff that sunk William Hague."

Mark Oaten, Liberal Democrat chairman, said: "Iain Duncan Smith can huff and puff as much as he likes about reforming the party but Ann Winterton and Andrew Hunter show that he has an impossible challenge ahead."