Harsh criticism of Zola Budd

Press, 5 November 1984, Page 52

Harsh criticism of Zola Budd

NZPA-AP Manchester The opposition Labour Party’s spokesman on home affairs yesterday accused the South African-born runner, Zola Budd, of "throwing away” her British passport “like a toy she has tired of.” Gerald Kaufman, speaking to , a meeting in the Manchester town hall, also said that the Home Secretary, Leon Brittan, “connived in the Zola Budd stunt with disgraceful alacrity.” Sd announced on lay that she intended

to renounce her British citizenship and remain in her native South Africa. Thirteen days after her arrival in England in March, Mr Brittan granted British citizenship to Budd to allow her to run in the Los Angeles Olympics for Britain. Budd finished seventh in the 3000 m race at the Olympics after she collided with the American runner, Mary Decker, who fell and was injured. “She obtained British citizenship even faster than she can run,” Mr Kaufman said.

“But now that her United Kingdom passport has served its purpose, or rather failed to do so, she is throwing it away like a toy she has tired of.

“This grubby episode is an insult to the tens of thousands of genuine applicants who have been waiting for years to obtain British citizenship,” Mr Kaufman said.

Mr Brittan is responsible for immigration in the Conservative Government of the Prime Minister, Mrs Margaret Thatcher.