Yesterday Pat Glass came under fire after she described a voter — who expressed concerns about a ‘scrounging’ Polish family — as a ‘horrible racist’. With the Labour MP since criticised for refusing to listen to voter concerns about immigration, the topic was at least up for discussion on last night’s Question Time.
As David Dimbleby chaired a panel — which included Amber Rudd, Ukip’s Paul Nuttall and Paul Mason — in Walsall, an audience member raised concerns that immigration in the UK disproportionately effects places like Walsall and Toxteth rather than Islington and Morningside.
At which point Mason — a former member of the Trotskyist Workers’ Power group — interjected, telling the man that the reason there are a high number of immigrants in Toxteth is down to slavery:
‘Do you know why there are so many immigrants in Toxteth? Do you know why there are so many black people in Toxteth? Because that is where they were taken as slaves when Liverpool was a slave port.’
However, while Toxteth did become home to wealthy slave merchants and slaves when Liverpool was a slave port in the 18th century, the influx of immigrants to the area is largely put down to the mass immigration after WW2.
https://twitter.com/GeorgeReeves94/status/733417182034415616
Paul Mason has just exposed himself and he knows nothing about post-war migration in the UK #Slavery #bbcqt
— Nu'man Abd al-Wahid نعمان عبد الواحد (@NumanAbdalWahid) May 19, 2016
Paul Mason is an idiot with no idea about #Toxteth Slavery or history. Incredible lack of knowledge! Why is somebody so ignorant on #bbcqt?
— Peter J Garrett (@PJexArdrishaig) May 19, 2016
Ukip’s Paul Nuttall was on hand to query Mason’s version of events:
PN: No, it wasn’t, no it wasn’t.
PM: You’re from Liverpool, what do you think it was?
PN: I am from Liverpool, and I’m telling you…
Unfortunately Mason didn’t seem too interested in Nuttall’s explanation. Instead he repeatedly asked him if he had an issue with ‘all black people living there’. When Nuttall said he did not, Mason moved on to saying Ukip supporters do. When that didn’t work out, Mason asked Nuttall if he was saying immigrants ‘shouldn’t have come after the war’:
PM: Do you object to all the black people living there?
PN: No I don’t, but they weren’t taken there as slaves…
PM: Many of your supporters do, many of Ukip supporters do
PN: They came in after 1945 when they had sensible immigration numbers, so for example between 45 and 97 around 30-50,000 people came every single year which was a sensible number so people can assimilate. You can’t do that when you’ve got 800,000 people coming every single year.
PM: Are you saying they shouldn’t have come after the war?
Mr S suspects Mason’s time would be better spent brushing up on his history knowledge rather than trying to put words into Nuttall’s mouth.
Comments