A Conservative MP has said he “will not be silenced” after a charity representing Gypsies and travellers accused him of “inciting discrimination” after he opposed a new traveller camp in his constituency.
Sir Conor Burns, the Bournemouth West MP, was reported to the Parliamentary Standards Commission by the Traveller Movement after he posted a video on social media opposing plans for a permanent site on a disused car park at Branksome Triangle.
Burns said the proposal was unsuitable to accommodate “the so-called settled Gypsy and traveller community”.
He said residents would not expect “the local council to decide who our neighbours are going to be, but that’s exactly what’s going to happen, potentially”.
Sir Conor Burns said he will not be silenced after a traveller charity said he was 'fanning racism'
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The MP said in the video: “I'm not saying they shouldn't have a site. I'm saying, in agreement, I think, with many local residents, that this site here in the middle of this residential area is not the right place.”
The Traveller Movement, which represents the Romani, Roma and Irish traveller community, said his comments “fanned the flames of racism” and accused him of “inciting discrimination”.
Burns has now hit back at the criticism, stating: “I will fully cooperate with any investigation into anything I have said.
“I will not, however, be silenced from raising legitimate issues on behalf of my constituents or opposing any planning proposals that I judge not in their interests, especially in the face of politically motivated attempts to mute the voice of a local MP."
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In the video, Burns added that Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council had marked the site “for what they call the so-called settled Gypsy and traveller community”.
Yvonne MacNamara, the chief executive of the Traveller Movement, wrote to Richard Holden, the Conservative Party chairman, saying: “The content of the video spoke of Romani (Gypsies) and Irish travellers as if they were second-class citizens.
“The member for Bournemouth West stated that he did not believe that the new Gypsy traveller site should be located in the Branksome Triangle because it is a 'residential area'.
“We question whether Conor Burns would make such statements about other protected groups, for example Jewish and black communities.”
The chief executive of the Traveller Movement said: 'The content of the video spoke of Romani (Gypsies) and Irish travellers as if they were second-class citizens.'
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The organisation’s head of trustees, Pauline Melvin-Anderson, said: "The whole tone of the video is that Gypsies and travellers are a problem to be solved rather than people, individuals, families, valued members of society.
“Particularly, saying there shouldn't be any settled site in a residential area is really, really worrying.
“What it is implying is that people from our community shouldn't be living alongside people from other ethnicities, that we should be living completely separately - out of sight, out of mind.”
The proposed site was previously used as a park-and-ride for employees of LV, the insurance company.