Presenter Stu Peters has been dropped from his Late Show on Manx Radio while the station carries out an investigation into alleged racism.

And an audio recording from Mr Peters’ current affairs phone-in show that aired on Wednesday night has been referred to the Communications Commission.

Chief Minister Howard Quayle raised the issue at Thursday’s press briefing, saying it would be inappropriate for him to comment while an investigation was underway.

’However, any publicly-funded body is expected to demonstrate the highest standards and ethics.’

The controversy began off air in a post Mr Peters made on the website Manx Forums. He questioned the purpose of a Black Lives Matter protest being held in the Isle of Man.

He posted: ’I expect the protest will be in front of the US Embassy in Douglas - otherwise an IoM protest about police brutality in Murrica (USA) makes no sense except as a virtue-signalling snowstorm.

’In other news (saw this on a graph earlier), in 2018 the USA had around 50,000 white-on-black violent crimes, compared with 400,000 black-on -black and around 550,000 black-on-white violent crimes. ALL Lives Matter!’

That post attracted the attention of a young black man called Jordan, who rang the Late Show to discuss it with Mr Peters.

He said: ’There’s so many things wrong with this, I don’t know where to start.’

Mr Peters encouraged him to say whatever he wanted to.

Jordan added: ’The fact that you are insinuating a Manx protest over police brutality is pointless unless it’s in a destination you deem fit, is absurd.’

Mr Peters asked why the demonstration should be held outside of Tynwald and said: ’It doesn’t make any sense to me which is the point I was trying to make on the Manx Forums thread.’

He added: ’I don’t understand why people on the Isle of Man are protesting in support of Black Lives Matter in America, which is 3,000 miles away.’

Jordan said it was a human rights issue and that people should ’stand up for it’.

Mr Peters added: ’I think what happened to George Floyd is despicable. I think what the police officer did is probably criminal, but we’ve got to wait until the courts decide that.

’But what I think that man did is he murdered George Floyd and I think that’s awful.

’I can understand very clearly why people in American are protesting about it.

’I can understand why Black Lives Matter, an American organisation, is protesting about it, but what I can’t understand is why people around the rest of the world are protesting and specifically in the Isle of Man why you would have a protest outside of Tynwald.’ Jordan said that saying all lives matter is a ’derogatory’ comment to make, something Mr Peters denied.

The caller added: ’For all lives to matter, we have to raise the people of all creeds, colours, religions to the level that white people’s privilege allows them to be.’

Privilege

Mr Peters interjected: ’I’ve had no more privilege in my life than you have Jordan. I’ve had no more privilege in my life than you have, I’m a white man, you’re a black man, you say.’

Jordan told Mr Peters: ’If you believe that, that is what exactly white privilege is.’

He added: ’I’m not saying you haven’t endured anything in your life, but the system is built for you to win already.

’I have to go through everything in my daily life and I have to go through these things, but you don’t see so you don’t think they exist.’

The next caller asked if he had asked black Manx residents why they feel there should be a protest on the steps of Tynwald. Mr Peters said: ’I used to know black people when I lived in Manchester but I don’t know any black people in the Isle of Man.’

He repeated that he wanted to know what was to be achieved by holding a protest in the Isle of Man.

Later in the show, Jordan called back to challenge a term used by another caller who referred to black people as ’coloured’.

Mr Peters said he didn’t correct the caller as he didn’t want him to use a worse derogative term.

When Jordan continued to challenge Mr Peters while he tried to give his response, he said: ’No, you shut up now Jordan. I thought if I corrected him on his choice of word at that point, it may send him further into paroxysms that would get us all in trouble.’

It led to Twitter posts calling on Manx Radio boss Chris Sully to respond. He tweeted that he had not heard the comments but that he would.

On Thursday morning, the programme’s sponsor, Isle of Man Creamery, issued a statement saying: ’For those people who heard the show, we wanted to publicly address what was said and make it clear that we in NO WAY condone the comments that were made or support the presenter’s view in any way.

’As a result of what was said we have decided to pull our sponsorship of that programme from this evening. Thank you to the people who have spoken up and brought this to our attention.’

Mr Sully told iomtoday.co.im: ’Following comments on the Manx Radio Late Show last night, presenter Stu Peters will not be presenting the show further whilst the matter is investigated. George Ferguson will be presenting the Late Show.’

In a statement, Manx Radio said: ’It is important as the public service broadcaster for us to emphasise that we do not condone racism, nor are the views of our presenters always the views of Manx Radio.

’The station has forwarded the audio from the show onto the Communications Commission to be reviewed.’

An online petition calling for Mr Peters to be sacked by Manx Radio has been signed by more than 1,500 people.