Scottish Labour conference: 'Ginger rodent' comments that led to hair-raising day for Harriet Harman

HARRIET Harman risked the wrath of red-headed Scots yesterday when she described Danny Alexander as a "ginger rodent" during a scathing attack on the Liberal Democrats.

The Labour deputy leader was forced to apologise for insulting Alexander as her remark threatened to overshadow serious policy announcements unveiled by Iain Gray.

Harman said the Lib Dems were "political mutants" for going into government with the Conservatives, but she saved her most personal remarks for the Chief Secretary to the Treasury.

Alexander, she said, was the "front man for the Tory cuts". But it was her remarks about his hair colour that led to dismay from red-head pressure groups and accusations of anti-Scottishness.

The former equalities minister, who led the fight to banish the word chairman from parliament on the basis that it is sexist, showed that her sensitivity on gender politics does not extend to a minority with a strong association with Scotland. It has more red heads than anywhere else in Europe with 8 per cent of the population having ginger hair.

In her bizarre contribution to the Scottish Labour Party conference in Oban, Harman made an unfavourable comparison between the minister, who represents Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey, and the red squirrel.

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"Many of us in the Labour Party are conservationists - and we all love the red squirrel. But there's one ginger rodent which we never want to see again in the Highlands of Scotland - Danny Alexander."

A hearty laugh - the biggest of her speech - greeted her insult. But outside the conference hall, there was a frostier response. Marian Purdy of Redhead and Proud, "the number one website for Redheads and Ginger Nuts", said she was "disappointed" by Harman's comments.

"That's a bit naughty," she said. "I know politics can get a bit personal, but that's a bit below the belt.

"That is a very inappropriate thing to say these days and it is sad that people still do it. I must say I am disappointed and surprised."

One prominent redhead at Holyrood, Shirley-Anne Somerville, the SNP Lothians MSP, said: "Labour don't have a Scottish heart any more, and clearly they don't have a Scottish head either. Her silly remark isn't anti-Danny or anti-Lib Dem, it's anti-Scottish. It's a gaffe that is overshadowing what Iain Gray thinks should be his big day.

"Coming from the doyenne of po-faced political correctness these remarks show she and Labour have lost the plot since losing the election."

Scottish Liberal Democrat election chairman George Lyon said: "There is no depths to which the Labour Party will not stoop. They aren't fit to be in opposition, let alone in government."

Harman's faux-pas prompted Alexander to respond on Twitter: "I am proud to be ginger and rodents do valuable work cleaning up the mess others leave behind. Red squirrel deserves to survive, unlike Labour."