Former MP brands police 'pigs'

Thursday, 19 March 2009 11:19 AM

By politics.co.uk staff

A former MP hurled abuse at police and barstaff during a drunken tirade, a court has heard.

Hotel manager Sven Nel told Peterborough magistrates' court that Helen Clarke, one of the 'Blair Babes' who entered parliament in 1997, called police "pigs" and described one member of the bar staff as an "effing Portugese b*tch".

"She was being abusive. She was threatening staff and causing a bit of a commotion," he said.

"She was tense, she was shouting, screaming. Much as we tried to calm her down she would not calm down.

"Customers were getting threatened. Customers were leaving the bar," he said.
But Quinn Hawkins, defending Clark, denied his client had used the phrase you "effing Portuguese b*itch" and questioned whether customers were threatened.

Police said Clark described them as 'pigs' when they came to her home to arrest her.

"I remember in the 1970s when police were referred to as 'pigs'," she allegedly said.

"That's what you all are - pigs. Look, everyone, I'm being arrested by the pigs."
Clarke admits going "ridiculously into Sir Galahad mode" but denies using threatening words and behaviour and being drunk and disorderly.

Ms Clarke was originally renowned in parliamentary circles for her loyalty to party leader, prompting Matthew Norman in the Guardian to describe her as "an alien life force designed by Millbank to stay on message for a thousand years without batteries" but she later stood out through her principled opposition to the Iraq war.

The case continues.

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