DISGRACED MP Eric Joyce’s girlfriend last night insisted she’d have DUMPED him if she believed he was racist.
Shamed Joyce was fined £1,500 last week for branding cop John Miller “f******
fat and black” in a boozy airport rant.
But he claimed the race-hate element of the charge was only included because of a court mix-up.
And last night his partner India Knight, 48 — whose mum was born in Pakistan — said: “The idea there was any racism from Eric is ludicrous.
“He is the opposite of someone who is racist and I’d dump him if I had any doubt.
“He left the Army because he called it institutionally racist, he worked for the Commission for Racial Equality in Scotland, he does work in Africa and I’m half-Pakistani — it’s all completely nuts.
“I know very well that there are all sorts of things the matter with Eric — but this is not one of them.” Author and Sunday Times columnist India —
who’s dated the Falkirk MP for two years and lives with him in London — claims he lost his temper during the row in May because he was on his way to see his sick mum.
She added: “It was a very difficult time. The guy he went to see was, according to Eric, extraordinarily unhelpful.
“He lost his rag but I think it’s a humanly understandable thing, in the circumstances, when you’re faced by some airport jobsworth.”
We told how Joyce admitted breach of the peace after the clash with PC Miller
at Edinburgh Airport. Two years ago Joyce, 53, was kicked out the Labour
party after being convicted of head-butting a Tory MP in another
drunk-fuelled bust-up.
He was also arrested after being caught up in a row in a Westminster pub last year.
But mum-of-three India claims he’s such a softy he even gave a tenner to a thief because he felt sorry for him.
She said: “At no point have I had any doubts about seeing Eric. He’s not the Neanderthal you think he might be.
“He doesn’t get bevvied. He hardly drinks and isn’t how you imagine him to be at all.
“Last year we were sitting having coffee when somebody nicked my mobile phone.
“Eric took off, then reappeared with my phone. He’d got it back gently and even gave the bloke a tenner because he felt sorry for him.”
India also revealed Joyce has had therapy to control his anger issues.
She admits he has a “short fuse” but added: “He’s working on it. I’m hoping that it will never happen again.
“He’s had therapy and I think it helps.
“Everybody’s got a past and nobody’s an angel.” graeme.donohoe@the-sun.co.uk
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