Harriet Harman says sorry for ginger jibe at Danny Alexander

LABOUR deputy leader Harriet Harman was forced to apologise yesterday for branding Liberal Democrat Chief Treasury Secretary Danny Alexander a "ginger rodent".

In a speech to the Scottish Labour Party Conference in Oban Harman said: "Many of us in the Labour Party are conservationists and we all love the red squirrel. But there's one ginger rodent we never want to see in the Highlands of Scotland - Danny Alexander."

Her remarks caused an outcry - including among some Labour supporters - and later she was forced to apologise saying she had been "wrong" to use the description about Alexander'

Alexander, MP for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey, later posted on Twitter: "I am proud to be ginger and rodents do valuable work cleaning up mess others leave behind. Red squirrel deserves to survive, unlike Labour."