Tory candidate quits after race row

Tory Nigel Hastilow has resigned as a Parliamentary candidate after declaring that Enoch Powell was "right" when he gave his notorious "Rivers of Blood" anti-immigration speech. Mr Hastilow stepped down after being summoned to a meeting with Tory party chairwoman Caroline Spelman to explain the comments he made in a newspaper column.

He said: "I am very sorry that any remarks of mine have undermined the progress David Cameron has made on the issue of immigration, as on so many other issues."

A Conservative spokeswoman confirmed the party had accepted his resignation as the candidate for Halesowen and Rowley Regis. Mr Hastilow said it was "with regret" that he had tendered his resignation but added the party would have his support for the future.

It is the second time Mr Hastilow, a former editor of the Birmingham Post, has courted controversy while a would-be MP. In 2001 he said the Tories under William Hague were seen as a "lost cause" with an unpopular leader. In his column for the Express and Star newspaper in Wolverhampton - where Mr Powell was MP at the time of the 1968 speech - Mr Hastilow wrote: "When you ask most people in the Black Country what the single biggest problem facing the country is, most say immigration. Many insist: 'Enoch Powell was right'. Enoch, once MP for Wolverhampton South-West, was sacked from the Conservative front bench and marginalised politically for his 1968 'rivers of blood' speech, warning that uncontrolled immigration would change our country irrevocably. He was right. It has changed dramatically."

He also wrote: "They have more or less given up complaining about the way we roll out the red carpet for foreigners while leaving the locals to fend for themselves."

Cabinet minister Peter Hain said Mr Hastilow's comments had revealed the "racist underbelly" of the Tory party.

Guardian