The Conservative homeland security spokesman, Patrick Mercer, today stepped down after saying that being called a "black bastard" was part-and-parcel of life in the armed forces.

The party leader, David Cameron, said the remarks by the MP for Newark and Retford were "totally unacceptable".

Mr Mercer becomes the first frontbench resignation of Mr Cameron's 15-month reign as leader. In an interview with Times Online he said it was "the way it is" a black soldier would be called a "black bastard", and that some "idle and useless" ethnic minority soldiers "used racism as cover for their misdemeanours".

Although the Tories are not using the word "sacked", his resignation was demanded, offered - and accepted.

Mr Cameron put out an immediate statement regretting Mr Mercer's remarks, adding: "We should not tolerate racism in the army or in any walk of life. Patrick Mercer is no longer a shadow minister."

Asked if he had over-reacted by demanding Mr Mercer's resignation - his first sacking as party leader - Mr Cameron broke off from an engagement in Birmingham to say: "I think the right thing is for Patrick to return to the backbenches."

The former colonel, who served with the Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters, said he used to command a battalion with five black company sergeant majors.

"If you'd said to them, 'have you ever been called a nigger?' they would have said 'yes'.

"But that's the way it is in the army. If someone is slow on the assault course, you'd get people shouting 'come on you fat bastard, come on you ginger bastard, come on you black bastard.'"

The story went online late this morning, and Mr Mercer had resigned by 3pm. Mr Mercer said he "deeply regretted" the offence he had "obviously caused".

The Liberal Democrats immediately seized on the resignation, saying it showed the Conservative party had not changed under Mr Cameron.

"Despite David Cameron's desperate attempts to portray his party as moderate and modern, the reality is that the heart and soul of the Conservative party still holds deeply unpleasant views," said Ed Davey, Sir Menzies Campbell's chief of staff.

In his statement, Mr Mercer went on to praise the work of ethnic miniority officers in the British army.

He said: "I had the privilege to command soldiers from across the east Midlands of whom many came from racial minorities. It was a matter of great pride to me that racial minorities prospered inside the unit, and, indeed at one stage all of my company sergeant majors were black.

"What I have said is clearly misjudged and I can only apologise if I have embarrassed in anyway those fine men whom I commanded. I have no hesitation in resigning my frontbench appointment."

The Conservative party's central office, after initially claiming that Mr Mercer's comments were a private matter based on his experience in the army, later condemned him.

The defence minister, Derek Twigg, said Mr Mercer's comments were "unbelievable".

"We put a great deal of priority into recruiting ethnic minorities to the armed forces and they play a very valuable role. These comments are not helpful," Mr Twigg told Sky News.

The Labour MP Sadiq Khan said: "Anybody who understands racism knows it is a broad spectrum of things. It starts with ridicule and ends with people dying because of the colour of their skin.

"When a mother or father allows their son or daughter to join the armed forces, there is a duty of care on the forces to look after them."

Mr Mercer's now-vacant post of shadow homeland security is a Conservative invention and has no direct equivalent in government.

Mr Mercer trained at Kelham theological college near Newark and studied history at Oxford University, before joining the army.

During his time in the Sherwood Foresters, he completed nine tours in Northern Ireland and commanded his battalion in Bosnia and Canada.

Other tours included time in Uganda and Germany and he served as an instructor at both the staff college, Camberley, and at the army's university at Cranfield.

In 1999, Mr Mercer left the army and accepted a post as the defence reporter for BBC Radio 4's Today programme. He left the BBC when he was selected as the Conservative candidate for Newark, and became a freelance journalist writing for the Daily Telegraph.

In the 2001 general election, Mr Mercer overturned a Labour majority of 3,000 to win the seat by nearly 4,000 votes. He was appointed in June 2003 to the newly created frontbench position of shadow minister for homeland security.

Source: politics.guardian.co.uk

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