He may have denied using the N-word but he also called an Asian man a "slope" and has called the Romanians "gypsies" and the Scots "tramps".
Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 11.11am BST11 11 My colleague Alan Travis, the Guardian's home affairs editor, has filed a story on the ONS figures about Bulgarians and Romanians in the workforce.
The very modest numbers of Romanians and Bulgarians coming to work in Britain this year is in stark contrast to the inflammatory rhetoric of earlier this year.
Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 10.10am BST10 10 Here is the start of the Press Association story about the employment figures for Romanians and Bulgarians.
Danny Alexander Photograph: REX Facebook Twitter Google plus Share Share this post Facebook Twitter Google plus close 9.54am BST09:54 Here is the key chart showing that the number of Romanians and Bulgarians in the labour force is going down.
He said fears of a surge in benefit tourism after restrictions on the entry of Romanians and Bulgarians are lifted in January were unfounded.
According to the Labour Uncut blog, Shakespeare told an LGA executive meeting that northerners affected by rising unemployment and public sector cuts should take up fruit collecting: "The north may replace the Romanians in the cherry orchards … and that may be a good thing".
But people abroad should not confuse Roma and Romanians".
Bucharest said that, of the three million Romanians now working abroad, only 100,000 had moved to the UK in the past seven years, and that the vast majority have been well-integrated and valued members of British society.
The British ambassador to Romania was asked to attend a meeting on Friday in Bucharest with the minister for Romanians abroad, Cristian David, at which the importance of discussing immigration in a "balanced and rational way" was debated.
Romanians described this as "auto-censure" – self-censorship – and said that it was far more effective than the Securitate, the secret police.
