Tory’s Cockney tale angers some MPs

Jan 17 2008 by Tomos Livingstone, Western Mail

TORY MP David Davies was branded “disgusting” yesterday after saying immigration levels in London were so high it was a surprise to hear a shop assistant with a Cockney accent.

Speaking in a Commons debate, Mr Davies, MP for Monmouth, said he had recently been buying a rucksack at a shop in Victoria, central London.

“I heard the gentlemen in the shop picking up the phone and speaking in a strong Cockney accent,” said Mr Davies.

“I was so surprised by this that I actually had the urge to turn round to him and say, as one might in a foreign country if one heard somebody from one’s own town, my goodness me, you’re from London.

“What on earth are you actually doing in this place working in a shop?”

Several Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs could be heard saying “disgusting”, but Mr Davies went on, “I really felt that, because it is so unusual in London or indeed any other major city, even some of the smaller towns in this country, to meet in the shops or restaurants someone who actually comes from the United Kingdom.”

He said ministers now believed that, “Somehow having hundreds of thousands of people, millions of people, many of whom are not legally entitled to work in this country, is somehow good for the economy.”

Lib-Dem MP Danny Alexander said Mr Davies had lowered the tone of the debate, and Deputy Speaker Sylvia Heal reminded MPs of the need for “temperate and moderate language”.