Gurbux Singh, former CRE Chairman, repents.
(2nd December 2002)

In his first interview since resigning as Chair of the Commission for Racial Equality, Gurbux Singh, told the BBC Asian Network that his behaviour at Lords Cricket Ground, which led to his resignation in August this year, was "unacceptable".

He told presenter Sonia Deol: "I'm not going to go into a debate that blames other people, the fact is that I behaved inappropriately. I should not have behaved in the way that I did and you have to face up to and take responsibility for your actions...the easiest thing for me to do is to say it was due to racism. I'm not saying that. I'm making no allegations of racism...I don't actually think that that was a factor."

He added: "The important thing to face up to is that my behaviour on that particular day was not appropriate. For somebody who was a public figure, the way I behaved was not acceptable. And I have accepted responsibility for that behaviour, I've put my hand up. I wrote to the police, lodging a formal apology with them...I now need to put that behind me, I need to move on."

Gurbux Singh continued: "My view is simply that I did something wrong. My behaviour on that particular day, momentarily, as it was a matter of minutes, was unacceptable, it was not the behaviour you expect of the Chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality and therefore you face up to that reality, ultimately to cost my job. I don't think that two or three minutes of aberration should had led to me eventually going, but when we thought about the issue seriously, it was mutually agreed that it made sense for me to move on."

When asked how drunk he'd been and he replied: "Even the police are clear that, they never charged me with being drunk, and I've never asserted that I was drunk. Clearly most people who go to Lords, particularly on a nice, sunny day, will engage in some drink. Like everybody else I'd had a few glasses of wine, I wasn't drunk."

He also spoke of the "trauma" of the whole event: "My wife has been hugely supportive through the whole period, I have friends who have been hugely supportive...but it was emotionally traumatic, it was difficult to cope with...clearly the media were perfectly entitled to deal with the story in the best way that they felt and it was splashed across every newspaper...what I'm now hoping for is to be left alone by the media."

When asked about his large payoff when he resigned, Gurbux Singh said: "No sum of money can actually deal with the trauma and the loss of something that I thoroughly enjoyed...time and time again I reflect back...yes of course it has provided me with an opportunity to reflect and so I spent the last three or four months reflecting on my mistakes at Lords. And clearly I've thought about that long and hard, the first couple of months I did nothing else but constantly reflect and relive the events at Lords."

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