Police investigating complaint about former Conservative party chairman's conduct during celebrations in Bury St Edmunds
Hugh Muir
Lord Tebbit, the former minister and Conservative party chairman, will face a formal police inquiry after a fracas with Chinese New Year revellers in his new home town of Bury St Edmunds, it emerged today.
A spokesman for Suffolk police said the Tory peer had been informed, as required by statute, that a complaint about his conduct while protesting about the event would be pursued by officers and a report would be compiled.
Caseworkers would then decide whether the matter should be passed to the Crown Prosecution Service.
The development will come as a shock to many in the party and in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, where it was largely assumed that meetings between Lord Tebbit and local council officials had resolved the issue.
In a letter he wrote after meeting the event organisers, Lord Tebbit, who moved to the town last year, wrote: "Peace and good community relations have been established between the indigenous population of Churchgate and the recent immigrants".
He said he was unaware that the event occurred in the centre of the town each year. "It was of course to be regretted that as a recent immigrant I had not been told of this, but then it is up to immigrants to remember that when in Rome".
While some considered the matter closed, the police are obliged to pursue complaints from the evening when Lord Tebbit was said to have to disrupted the dragon dancing due to the noise. He allegedly approached one man with a drum, and on receiving no satisfactory reply, placed his hands on the instrument. Later reports suggested he may have kicked out at one of the revellers.
A Suffolk police spokesman said: "A 78-year-old man from Bury St Edmunds has been reported for consideration of prosecution for a public order offence, after a complaint was received about the conduct of a man in Hatter Street in Bury St Edmunds on the evening of Tuesday 16th February. Inquiries are continuing".
The Guardian
