Tory Minister , Helen Wheeler MP for South Derbyshire, said Blackpool was a ‘godawful’ places while speaking at an official government event in London – on the same day Prime Minister Boris Johnson was in the resort to give his keynote speech about his planned extension of Margaret Thatcher’s flagship Right-To-Buy scheme.
She made the offensive remark at the launch of the 2022 to 2025 Roadmap to a Digital Future Ms Wheeler said, ‘I was just at a conference in, I dunno, Blackpool or Birmingham, somewhere godawful.’
In an apology Tweet, Ms Wheeler said: ‘Whilst speaking at a conference on Thursday, I made an inappropriate remark that does not reflect my actual view. I apologise for any offence caused.’
Blackpool Labour Councillor Lynn Williams said, ‘We’re used to getting (these) sort of ignorant and ill-advised comments. It makes me quite cross that, you know, particularly in this instance we held the Tory spring conference back in March of this year, which was incredibly successful, at our state-of-the art conference centre.’
She continued, ‘Blackpool’s seen the biggest increase in footfall for the last two years. We’re doing something right, people love Blackpool. Maybe she needs to come and have a look round and enjoy the world-famous illuminations on our beautiful Promenade. We know we’ve got a lot of social inequalities to deal with and we’re actually meant to be working with the Government to deal with those as part of the levelling up programme so, yeah, it’s just frustrating. But we carry on regardless. We’ll continue to invest in our town and our people.’
3 Responses
In an apology Tweet, Ms Wheeler said: ‘Whilst speaking at a conference on Thursday, I made an inappropriate remark that does not reflect my actual view.”
Liar. That comment reflects your view exactly. It’s these sort of remarks which do tremendous damage to the Tory Party. If Boris is serious about levelling up, then this snob should be fired.
This woman said out loud just exactly what Tories think about working class people and the towns we live in. Godawful, that’s us and our homes. The woman is a clear example of what’s wrong with this fascist extremist corrupt Tory cult. She is an embarrassment.
Please God let the electorate end this vile oppressive regime at the next election
Ignorant Tory Scum. What is godawful is that this privileged entitlement stupid woman is in a position of responsibility. Local Tory Blackpool MP response …. Silence, because he’s a greasy Boris arse licking toady.