US radio presenter threatens to sue over UK entry ban
American radio presenter Michael Savage has threatened to sue Home Secretary Jacqui Smith for placing him on a list of ‘undesirables’ banned from entering the UK.
Savage, whose real name is Michael Weiner, is known for his strong views on homosexuality, abortion and immigration. He was listed alongside murderers and terrorists for “engaging in unacceptable behaviour” by provoking hate.
He has called Smith a “lunatic witch” for including him on the list and has said his life is now in danger.
The 67-year-old, who once claimed that the “homosexual mafia” are “raping our children’s minds”, told listeners on his show: “For this lunatic Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary of England, to link me up with skinheads who are killing people in Russia, to put me in [the same] league with mass murderers who kill Jews on buses is defamation.
“Moreover I have been endangered by this lunatic. She has painted a target on my back, linking me with people who are in prison for killing people.
“I thought this was a joke or a mistake… How could they put Michael Savage in the same league with mass murderers when I have never avowed violence? She picked an easy target.
“As a result of this I’m going to sue her [Smith]. I don’t know if I can win, I don’t know the law of England. I have seven lawyers working on this right now.”
Smith has described him as “someone who has fallen into the category of fomenting hatred, of such extreme views and expressing them in such a way that it is actually likely to cause intercommunity tension or even violence if that person were allowed into the country”.
Savage also called for his listeners to “cancel trips to England”, adding: “I suggest you stop buying English made goods, I don’t know what they make any more but whatever they make I suggest you don’t buy any more.
“If they want to play hard ball, we’ll play hard ball. Will they ban my listeners from going to their wonderful, great nation as well.”
Westboro Baptist Church leader Fred Phelps and his daughter Shirley Phelps-Roper are also on the list of individuals banned from entering the country since October due to their extremist views.
The Phelps family believe that the deaths of US soldiers in Iraq are God’s “punishment” homosexuality and those who tolerate it.
