The shadow business secretary, Chuka Umunna, walked out of a live television interview on Monday after being asked his view on a controversial letter sent to 1,000 Muslim leaders by the communities secretary, Eric Pickles.
The Labour frontbencher was frustrated because he was pressed live on Sky News over whether he would describe the letter as “patronising”, when he had not actually read it and was booked to talk about the prime minister’s speech on the economy.
The letter has caused a stir because the Muslim Council of Britain and others objected to the idea that Muslims should have to “explain and demonstrate how faith in Islam can be part of British identity”.
Cameron has already backed Pickles for sending the letter. However, Labour has been largely staying out of the row until Umunna was asked for his opinion by Sky presenter Dermot Murnaghan.
The shadow business secretary began by saying Muslims are already “seeking to marry up and illustrate how Muslim values are actually British values too” but declined to use the word patronising to describe the government’s attitude because he had not read the actual text.
Asked whether he would like to come back on the show in 30 minutes after having read it, Umunna hit back at the request and then subsequently walked off screen while the camera was still on him.
“I think you’re being a bit ridiculous right now,” he told Murnaghan.
“Your viewers can form their own views. I was asked to come and speak about David Cameron’s speech on the economy and what was happening around the labour market. Nobody told me I was going to come on to this programme and asked to agree whether I thought the government was patronising Muslim people and Muslim leaders.
“I’m not just going to speak off piste without actually having read a letter. I don’t think you are being terribly fair. Your viewers can make their own decision.”
Later, Hazel Blears, a senior Labour MP and former cabinet minister, said the row over the letter was a distraction. She told the BBC’s World at One: “I think it is important that he’s written to all the mosques to try and take sure that all the imams up and down the country are reminded, really, of the important role they can play in trying to combat these dreadful message of extremism.
“But I am a little frustrated that here we are having a row a letter, when we’re facing an extreme terrorist threat, when the imperative on all of us is to get on with some practical work on the ground, to combat these messages, but most of all, to build the resilience of young people and their families so that when these extremists try and draw them into this ideology, they’re able to resist it.
“And I’ve been saying this now for several years, that I do think that the government took their eye off the ball around this agenda, and now we’re seeing the ‘Prevent’ programme being re-energised, which I am very glad about.”
