Daily Mail : Prescott in 'four letter insult to Bush'

Prescott in 'four letter insult to Bush'

by KIRSTY WALKER | August 17, 2006

John Prescott was plunged into further controversy last night after a Labour MP claimed he had branded George Bush's administration 'crap'.

The Deputy Prime Minister was said to have condemned the U.S. President's handling of the Middle East crisis during a private meeting with Labour backbenchers.

The report will embarrass Tony Blair - Mr Prescott is supposedly standing in for the Prime Minister while he is on holiday in the Caribbean - and could trigger a diplomatic row.

Mr Prescott's office denied he made the comments but Labour MP Harry Cohen insisted he had.

The attack on Mr Bush was seen as a desperate attempt to appease Labour MPs, furious about Mr Blair's backing of America and Israel over the bombing of Lebanon.

It will raise further questions about Mr Prescott's ability to continue as Deputy Prime Minister.

The remarks are said to have been made at a private meeting in Mr Prescott's Whitehall office with Muslim MPs and other Labour MPs whose constituencies include large Muslim communities.

Muslim MPs wanted to press home their objections to British foreign policy and discuss ways of improving relations with their communities.

Mr Cohen's constituency includes Walthamstow, where police carried out several raids over the alleged aircraft bomb plot last week.

He said Mr Prescott was talking in the context of the 'road map' setting our progress to peace in the Middle East.

Mr Cohen went on: 'He said he only gave support to the war on Iraq because they were promised the road map.

'But he said the Bush administration had been crap on that. We all laughed and he said to an official "Don't minute that".'

Mr Cohen told the Independent: 'We also had a laugh when he said old Bush is just a cowboy with his Stetson on.

'But then he said "I can hardly talk about that can I?".'

That was a reference to Mr Prescott being given a cowboy outfit on a controversial visit to the Colorado ranch of gambling tycoon Philip Anschutz, the man who wants to open a super-casino in the Millennium Dome.

Gaffe-prone Mr Prescott has been at pains to avoid breaking ranks with Mr Blair in public, although he is believed to have raised concern about the bombing of Lebanon at a private Cabinet meeting.

Last night his office insisted the reports were wrong.

A spokesman said: 'This is an inaccurate report of a private conversation and it is not his view.

'He does not believe that George Bush is crap.'

This denial seemed to be backed up by some of the MPs present at the meeting, who said yesterday they could not remember Mr Prescott making the remark.

But whatever his exact words, reports of the meeting threatened a diplomatic row.

Many Labour MPs have been infuriated by the spectacle of Mr Bush and Mr Blair jointly supporting the Israeli action. The MPs went to see Mr Prescott to lodge their criticism of the Government's foreign policy.

The row comes only days after Mr Prescott was criticised for avoiding angry passengers at the airports worst affected by disruption in the wake of the bomb-plot arrests.

The Deputy Prime Minister has reeled from crisis to crisis over the last few months.

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k. walker@dailymail.co.uk