Straw aide castigates `dangerous' travellers

THE STORM over comments about gypsies by the Home Secretary, Jack Straw, erupted again last night as his senior aide made an outspoken attack on "freebooters and freeloaders" in the travelling community who he said "abuse every public facility".

In a letter to The Independent, Colin Pickthall, Mr Straw's parliamentary private secretary, said the minister had spoken up for "thousands of local residents, councils, police and business people" faced with the "loathsome and dangerous task" of dealing with "a certain section of the travellers' community". Mr Pickthall, MP for West Lancashire, writes: "[Mr Straw] correctly identifies the groups who `masquerade' as normal itinerants but in reality are freebooters and freeloaders, who intimidate firms by using their reception areas as latrines and car parks as scrap yards and rubbish dumps."

The Home Secretary is facing a police inquiry after complaints from travellers' groups over comments made on a Birmingham radio station last month. The groups claim he breached the public order act. The claim is denied by the Home Office.

Susan Alexander, of the Friends, Families and Travellers Advice and Information Unit, said the MP had "further aggravated negative attitudes" towards the travelling community. She said: "It is not possible to divide travellers into good guys and bad guys. Criminal behaviour is a matter for the police and it's not for the Home Secretary's private secretary to inflame this issue even further."

Gypsies visa row, page 4 Letters, Review, page 2