Sir Desmond Swayne once blacked up as James Brown for fancy dress party

NEW Forest West MP Sir Desmond Swayne has admitted he once ‘blacked up’ as soul singer James Brown for a fancy dress party.

The backbencher made the admission on his blog after noting Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau offered a “cringing apology” when pictures emerged of him having blacked up 18 years ago for an Arabian Nights-themed party.

“It comes to something when you can’t dress up as Aladdin without attracting the opprobrium of the ‘great and good’,” Sir Desmond said.

“He would have done better to have said it was an entirely acceptable bit of fun and refused to apologise.

“I once went to a Blues Brothers-themed fancy dress party as James Brown. I went to some trouble to be as authentic as possible. I can assure readers of this column that I have no intention of apologising.”

Sir Desmond went on: “Constituents often write to me having been infuriated by some latest absurdity of political correctness. I tell them that the best response is simply to laugh at it.

“Here’s one to amuse them: last week academics attended a conference at Roehampton University entitled ‘Thinking beyond Transversal Transfeminisms’ and wearing badges informing each other if they were happy to chat, or prefer not to be spoken to at all. Barking, or what?”

Following criticism in the media Sir Desmond has said he would not black up again – but only because of the time it takes to clean off.

Speaking to the MailOnline, he said: “No one has complained to me about it.

"The reason I wouldn't do it again is because you have to go to some trouble to get it off. It's not a non-trivial exercise.”