A Government Minister has denounced a fellow Cabinet member for using the phrase ?house niggers? on his radio show.

Community Affairs Minister Dale Butler said he was ?ashamed? that the word nigger was ?part of the black vocabulary? and wished that kind of language could be buried in Bermuda.

Sen. David Burch used the phrase after cutting off a caller on his Sunday evening Hott 107.5 FM call-in show last summer prior to being appointed to the Senate or being made Works and Housing Minister. He was apparently referring to black members of the United Bermuda Party.

Mr. Butler told : ?I would like to see that type of language dispelled and never used. There is no room for that type of language in Bermuda.

?I don?t see why we have to label ourselves as something that whites used to label us with. It?s part of the psychological damage that has been done to black people over the years, deliberately and indirectly. We don?t need it in Bermuda at all from anybody.

?I hope that we can bury the use of that language in this country by anybody.?

He added: ?He (Sen. Burch) is a political colleague of mine and I would hope he can bury it. I don?t condone the use of that language.?

Mr. Butler would not comment on the recent decision by the Human Rights Commission (HRC) to dismiss a complaint by Shadow Finance Minister Patricia Gordon-Pamplin about the remark. ?I don?t have an opinion on it,? he said.

But he appeared to agree with the sentiments of Sen. Burch, telling this newspaper: ?Black people who want to join that party (the UBP) want to be white.?

His comment sparked outrage from Mrs. Gordon-Pamplin last night. She said the former primary school principal?s remark made her ?want to puke?.

?Dale Butler has shown he is no different to David Burch. He?s saying exactly the same thing, just with less offensive language.

?If he can adopt that kind of attitude, thank God he is no longer in our school system.?

She said she believed Mr. Butler?s view was shared by many of his Progressive Labour Party colleagues.

?It must be if you can get two Cabinet Ministers articulating the same school of thought.?

She added: ?I have no desire to be any colour other than that which I was born. I don?t have an inferiority complex.?

Premier Alex Scott yesterday declined to comment on the HRC decision or Sen. Burch?s language. Beverle Lottimore, the Government?s Director of Communication and Information, said: ?It is not the practice of the Premier to comment on decisions made by statutory bodies.?