Race has suddenly become a central issue in the political campaign running up to the General Election.

It all started when the Commission for Racial Equality released the names of people who signed a pledge promising not to play the race card.

Its chairman Gurbux Singh, who attended Sussex University, simply wants racists to play no part in the election campaign.

That sounds fair enough and many Tories have had no problem in signing the pledge.

Some who have refused may have illiberal views on race.

But the non-signers included MPs such as Nicholas Soames from Mid Sussex who is certainly not a racist.

He believes the pledge signing is a stunt engineered by the CRE and the Labour Party. But he is wrong.

The CRE belongs to no party. Its sole aim is to have good race relations in this country.

No MP of any party should have any compunction about signing.

Mr Singh and the CRE were perfectly entitled to produce the list. It's the MPs who did not sign who have caused the fuss. They have caused problems for Tory leader William Hague who had no problem about signing the pledge himself.