SNP MP sorry for tweeting ‘murdering babies wasn’t on the Nazi manifesto’

AN SNP politician has apologised after tweeting that “murdering babies wasn’t on the Nazi manifesto”.

Peter Grant, the MP for Glenrothes, made the comment following a tweet by the broadcaster Andrew Neil.

The Scottish Conservatives called his remark “absolutely abhorrent and beyond the pale”.

It came after Mr Neil shared a message from the Auschwitz Memorial about a Hungarian Jewish toddler murdered in a gas chamber before his first birthday.

He wrote on Twitter: “As accusations of fascism are bandied about today like confetti by the ignorant, ludicrously devaluing the word of any meaning, a reminder of what real fascism can do. And of its unconscionable evil.”

In a now deleted tweet, Mr Grant wrote: “You’re more right than you care to admit. Murdering babies wasn’t on the Nazi manifesto. Not until they’d been in power several years & had stoked up fear & hatred against innocent citizens.

“Then, only then, did they show their true colours.”

Responding to Mr Neil, fellow SNP MP Anne Mclaughlin also wrote: “And here is MY reminder that ‘real fascism’ didnt start off talking about murdering children, it talked of ‘reasonable concerns’ raised by ‘respectable people’.

“NEVER let it sneak up on you. NEVER look away. NEVER regret leaving it too late to speak out.”

Marie van der Zyl, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, criticised the remarks.

She said: “We are disturbed by the suggestion from some MPS that Nazism only gradually revealed its true aims.” She said Hitler “was always open about his aims”.

She added: “The overwhelming majority of comparisons to the Nazis are extremely inappropriate, and we would urge people – particularly parliamentarians – to choose their words with far more care.”

Mr Grant later apologised for his comment, saying it was highly insensitive.