A senior Tory MP joked about murdering Ms Carrie Prejean, this year’s Miss California, on the BBC comedy show Have I Got News For You.
Alan Duncan MP, 52, the openly homosexual Shadow Leader of the House of Commons who has expressed his desire to become Home Secretary, appeared on the programme on Friday, 24 April 2009. In a sequence about Miss California, Carrie Prejean, 21, who believes that marriage should be between a man and a woman, the MP called her a ‘silly b**ch’ and said ‘If you read that Miss California is murdered you will know it was me’.
(http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2396443.ece)
The astonishing remark drew an audible intake of breath from some of those present and Katy Brand, sharing the panel, remarked: ‘That’s a hell of a statement to be making on camera there Alan.’ Paul Merton added: ‘For someone planning to be Home Secretary'.
Mr Duncan's comments were in reaction to remarks made by Miss Prejean at the Miss USA beauty pageant last week. When Ms Prejean was asked whether every US state should legalise homosexual marriage, she replied:
‘I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offence to anybody out there, but that’s how I was raised and that's how I think it should be – between a man and a woman.’
(For more information see http://www.ccfon.org/view.php?id=725)
Mr Duncan's comments have provoked outrage among the programme’s viewers with complaints being filed with the BBC and the Broadcasting Standards Authority.
The Rev. George Hargreaves, leader of the Christian Party said: ‘Mr Duncan has crossed the line. A senior politician suggesting, even as a joke, that it is OK that Ms. Prejean should be murdered for her Evangelical Christian views is totally unacceptable.
‘How can we stop gun and knife crime when the man thinks he will be the next Home Secretary makes death threats?’
(http://www.christianparty.org.uk/cmsparty/)
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