Jewish politician's plan "have the whiff of the gas chamber about them", says opponent

Another politician from the British Labour Party has made a reference to the Nazis in criticizing a leading opposition politician for promoting policies to restrict Gypsy encampments. Kevin McNamara said that Conservative Party leader Michael Howard’s plans to strengthen laws over illegal sites set up by Gypsies had “the whiff of the gas chamber about them”. An estimated 250,000 to 500,000 Gypsies were murdered by the Nazis during World War II. Howard, who is Jewish and whose grandmother died in Auschwitz, declined to comment. The incident is the latest in a series involving Jewish politicians. In February, a furor erupted after Labour campaign posters featured Howard and Oliver Letwin, another leading Jewish Conservative politician, with their faces transposed onto pigs’ bodies. Another image depicted Howard as Shylock, a Jewish figure in Shakespeare's "Merchant of Venice".