Robert Henderson (writer)

Robert Henderson (born 1947) is an English writer who has caused public controversy with his views on racial issues and his letters to the former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. He lives in Central London.

Henderson spent his early childhood in Cheshire before moving to Hertfordshire, where he was educated at St Albans School, later graduating from Keele University. Before retiring due to ill health he worked for the Inland Revenue, while also retaining a strong personal interest in cricket.

In 1995 he became the subject of attention from the British media after Wisden Cricket Monthly published his essay "Is It In The Blood?", which used language such as "negro" and implied that foreign-born players would be less committed to the team. A legal action taken against Wisden by black England cricketers Devon Malcolm and Phillip DeFreitas was settled out of court.

Henderson claimed media bias against him together with censorship of his views and wrote a number of letters to his constituency Labour MP, Frank Dobson, and later to Tony Blair (then the opposition leader) and also to Blair's wife Cherie. In March 1997 Blair is said to have contacted the police asking for a means to stop this "pestering"; on 25 March 1997, a story accusing Henderson explicitly of "pestering" the Blairs appeared on the front page of the Daily Mirror. Henderson has frequently claimed that Special Branch and the security services have, on Blair's instructions, interfered with his mail and tapped his telephone.

The only MP to have put forward an Early day motion in support of Henderson is the now-retired Sir Richard Body, a Tory MP who was sympathetic to nationalism and who rejected the economic rationalism and pro-globalisation slant of the current Tory party, in 1999.

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