Danny Alexander defends ‘valuable’ rodents
By politics.co.uk staff
Danny Alexander has issued a defiant tweet after being called a “ginger rodent” by Labour’s deputy leader Harriet Harman.
The Liberal Democrat chief secretary to the Treasury’s comment on the social networking website came as Ms Harman was forced to apologise for her remarks in a speech to the Scottish Labour party’s conference.
“Many of us in the Labour party are conservationists – and we all love the red squirrel. But there is one ginger rodent which we never want to see again – Danny Alexander,” Ms Harman said, to laughter from delegates in Oban.
A spokesperson later said Ms Harman had called Mr Alexander to offer a personal apology for the comment.
The Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey MP later tweeted: “I am proud to be ginger and rodents do valuable work cleaning up mess others leave behind.” He added: “Red squirrel deserves to survive, unlike Labour.”
Ms Harman’s attack preceded a wider assault on the Lib Dems’ decision to enter into a coalition with the Conservative party in London – a move unlikely to help their prospects north of the border in next May’s Scottish parliament elections.
“There’s something deeply unnatural that’s happening in Scotland,” Ms Harman added yesterday.
“Without asking anyone in Scotland the government has been carrying out a programme of genetic modification – political genetic modification.
“This mutation has contaminated every Liberal Democrat councillor, it’s affected every Liberal Democrat MP and MSP.
“They’ve all mutated into something alien to Scotland – Tories. And there’s only one thing to do. These political mutants must be got rid of at the ballot box.”
Her comments have been overshadowed by the ‘ginger rodent’ slight, however, with Mr Alexander finding an unlikely defender in the Scottish National party’s MSP Shirley-Anne Somerville.
“There’s a mountain of issues people can criticise Danny Alexander for but childish abuse about his appearance reveals Labour have little to say about the real issues of Westminster cuts which they are equally responsible for and which they have admitted will be little different,” she said.
