A shop owner advertising 'immigrant bags' has caused uproar among locals in Crowborough and sparked outrage on Twitter over the offensive image.
A shop owner advertising 'immigrant bags' has caused uproar among locals in Crowborough and sparked outrage on Twitter over the offensive image.

Mr Webster, the owner of Benefactors Hardware in Crowborough, East Sussex, has been accused of racism after advertising the large chequered laundry bags with a drawing of a black man and the words "zippadydoohdah zip-up immigrant bags 1.50".

The hand-written sign has landed Mr Webster in the middle of a Twitter storm as locals vented their anger saying the sign does not reflect the views of the town.

Attention was first drawn to the sign, displayed in the shop's front window, by local music composer Nick Harvey when he posted a picture on Twitter saying: "There's a hardware shop in Crowborough, E Sussex called Benefactors. Please don't shop there." A barrage of retweets and comments followed and Mr Harvey tweeted again. He said: "Since moving to Crowborough a year ago, a couple of people have told me of its racist underbelly, but nothing could prepare me for that."

Among those commenting on the sign, Charles Hendry, MP for the Wealden constituency, said: "I hope the sign will have been removed immediately and an apology given for the offence it has caused."

Former MP Louise Mensch retweeted Mr Harvey's original comment and posted: "Am from Wadhurst and Rotherfield. Never encountered any racists. This person/shop not representative. Disgusting."

Speaking exclusively to diyweek.net, Mr Webster denies putting the sign in the window himself. He said: "It must have been one of my staff. It's been there three years. We have several humorous labels on products and we've always called the bags immigrant bags. People find it funny.

"Customers have even bought me bottles of wine," he continued. "There was no malicious intent but someone obviously didn't like it, took a picture and put it on the internet. It's all been blown out of proportion."

When asked about the incident, a member of staff at Beacon Travel Service, across the road from Benefactors, told diyweek.net "he's always putting up funny signs in the window".

The police were informed about the shop and an officer visited on Friday and spoke to the owner, who was given strong words of advice. They told Mr Webster a complaint had been made but it is not believed that there was any deliberate intention to cause offence. The sign had already been taken down prior to the officer attending.