Fury at senior Nat’s ‘offensive’ online slur
A SENIOR Nationalist MP has been accused of insulting ‘thousands of his own constituents’ after making a vile slur against pro-Union voters.
Pete Wishart made the offensive comments on Twitter and encouraged followers to ‘vote till you boak’ in a bid to have Tory candidates finish last in next month’s council elections.
The Perth and North Perthshire MP then outlined how voters should rank candidates – in line with the single transferable vote system used in Scottish local government elections. But rather than telling followers to number all candidates on preference, he used ‘highly inappropriate and offensive’ slurs.
Mr Wishart claimed political parties who back Scotland remaining in the UK were ‘w **** ’, while the SNP and others who favour independence are ‘good guys’.
His comments come only days after the First Minister urged supporters to debate with ‘courtesy, empathy and respect’.
Mr Wishart posted an image of a ballot paper with eight candidates from parties including the SNP, the Greens, the Lib Dems, Labour and the Tories. He claimed the SNP and Green candidates would be varying degrees of ‘good guy’ and used the slur to describe the others.
The terms were inspired by BBC sketch show Chewin’ the Fat.
Labour MSP James Kelly said: ‘These comments are highly inappropriate and offensive, particularly from an MP. Yet again Pete Wishart has insulted thousands of his own constituents and many more people across Scotland who choose not to support the SNP’s agenda of division and grievance.
‘These comments come just days after Nicola Sturgeon herself again had to call for a civilised political debate in Scotland.’
Scottish Conservative Chief Whip John Lamont said such comments are ‘all too common from senior members of the SNP and have no place in modern political discourse’.
Tory MSP Murdo Fraser said: ‘For a serving MP to be indulging in low-grade insults such as this is frankly staggering. If Nicola Sturgeon is going to be true to her word, she should consider removing the SNP whip from Mr Wishart immediately.’
The Scottish Daily Mail revealed this week that SNP candidates had used social media to call pro-Union rivals ‘traitors’ and ‘quislings’, and posted offensive messages about the Westminster terror attack.
Mr Wishart’s tweet called for followers to vote against the Tories amid the ‘rape clause’ tax credits row: ‘Vote till you boak. Make sure the rape clause candidate is absolutely last.’
Last night Mr Wishart, who chairs the Scottish Affairs Committee at Westminster, had deleted the post from his Twitter page.
It is understood he decided to remove the tweet less than 24 hours after it was posted.
The SNP said: ‘Those from all sides of the debate should seek to make their case with courtesy, understanding and respect.’
UK Lib Dem leader Tim Farron said this week ‘extremism’ lurks beneath the surface of the SNP after City of Edinburgh Council’s SNP group leader Frank Ross suggested proUnion parties called themselves ‘Scottish’ only as a branding exercise to win votes.