David Cameron is facing mounting pressure to condemn a Tory MP who branded the Olympic opening ceremony "leftie multicultural crap". Aidan Burley, who was forced to quit as a ministerial aide after attending a Nazi-themed stag do last year, delivered the barb on Twitter during the event on Friday night.
One post read: "The most leftie opening ceremony I have ever seen - more than Beijing, the capital of a communist state! Welfare tribute next?" Shortly afterwards he added: "Thank God the athletes have arrived! Now we can move on from leftie multi-cultural crap. Bring back red arrows (sic), Shakespeare and the Stones!" London Mayor Boris Johnson added his voice to a barrage of criticism, dismissing the comments as "nonsense". Whilst visiting the Olympic Park on the first day of the Games, the Conservative politician said: "It was actually the truth about this country in the last two or three hundred years told in a big, dynamic way. People say it was all leftie stuff. That is nonsense. I'm a Conservative and I had hot tears of patriotic pride from the beginning. I was blubbing like Andy Murray." He added: "The thing I loved was the heavy political stuff. I loved the emergence of the urban proletariat and the rise of the chimneys and the forging of the ring." Downing Street moved quickly to distance Mr Cameron from the comments, with a senior source saying simply: "We do not agree with him." But Cannock Chase MP Mr Burley struck a defiant tone in interviews, insisting he still thought the event had been "trite". He told the BBC: "I wasn't having a go at multiculturalism itself, I was having a go at the rather trite way, frankly, it was represented in the opening ceremony." He admitted his tweets might not help his career but said he welcomed the debate. Labour frontbencher Michael Dugher said: "David Cameron should show some leadership and demand a full apology from Aidan Burley immediately. Burley has got form. His comments were stupid, ignorant and offensive. David Cameron has said that the Conservative Party has changed but it is clear from the words of his own MP that not a lot has changed."
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