THE TORIES have suspended the chairman of the Aberdeen University Conservative and Unionist Association after he appeared to suggest black people shouldn’t live in Ireland.
Jordan Hopwood was caught out after tweeting a comment on a video of Tory leadership hopeful Rory Stewart speaking to three Irish people of colour.
"’Irish’" he tweeted, putting the word in inverted commas, before asking what Irish revolutionary, Cathal Brugha or mythical warrior, Cú Chulainn would have made it.
When someone pulled him up on the comment, he replied: "You know it is laughable. Laughable that you Gaels fought for an independent catholic Gaelic Ireland. Now look at you lot. All those people died for nothing.”
He then went on to say he was “referring to the degeneration of Ireland away from an independent Catholic nation.”
“Just look at your Taoiseach [Prime Minister]. I just find it ironic that you put so much effort into freeing yourselves from a protestant UK only to now join another Union and be overrun by other religions.”
In a statement to the Gaudie, the university’s student newspaper, who first broke the story, Hopwood denied there was a “racial nature” to his comments about people of colour living in Ireland.
“All I will say for now is that what I had said was stupid, but not intended to attack people based on the colour of their skin, as I go on to explain in the comments. Sadly that got buried in the twitter storm that followed.”
“I understand this is of course highly sensitive and for those that felt personally attached, I am deeply sorry since I would never countenance to attack someone based on the colour of their skin.”
“Sadly twitter has a tendency to turn stupid or badly worded comments into a massive palaver – I accept the stupidity and badly worded nature of my remark but people have added a racial nature to what I had said which simply wasn’t there.”
A spokesman for the Tories confirmed that Hopwood’s membership was suspended and that a complaint had been referred to the party’s disciplinary committee.
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