UK Independence Party peer Lord Pearson of Rannoch has invited Baroness Sayeeda Warsi (Conservative) to debate with former EDL leader Tommy Robinson following his appearance in the Houses of Parliament last week.
Robinson conducted an interview with Lord Pearson following the revelation of new rape and grooming gang information, this time emanating from Telford in the West Midlands.
While Lord Pearson was heckled in the House of Lords, and slammed by Baroness Warsi for inviting Robinson onto the Parliamentary Estate, he has responded by inviting Baroness Warsi to debate the anti-radical Islam campaigner and citizen journalist.
The letter from Lord Pearson to former government minister and ex-Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party Baroness Warsi reads:
Dear Sayeeda,
I am disappointed that you censured me in the Oral Question on Hate Speech last Thursday, 15th, for inviting Tommy Robinson to hear my question on grooming gangs on Tuesday, 13th
Your intervention implies you think that Tommy has been guilty of ‘hate crime’, and so he should not be allowed into our precincts.
As I said in our recent private conversation, in my debates on 7th December last year and 19th December 2013, the latter of which you answered for the Government, not to mention in numerous interventions and Written Questions, I fear we are not going to defeat Islamism unless we understand Islam.
In this I have been supported by the Archbishop of Canterbury, who has said that we shouldn’t go on saying that ISIS has nothing to do with Islam, and that it is time for our religious leaders to stand up and be counted.
Hence my initiative, ‘Can we learn and talk about Islam’, the theme of which runs through all of the above.
Of course it won’t achieve anything without the participation and leadership of our Muslim friends.
So, in pursuit of education and free speech, can I offer to host a public debate between you and Tommy, entitled: “Free speech matters more than hate speech”.
I look forward to hearing from you.
With good wishes,
Malcolm
Robinson recently led around 2,000 people in Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park protesting in favour of free speech after the UK government excluded a number of right wing journalists from the country.
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