LIBERAL Democrat MP David Ward has issued what the party described as a categorical apology after he was accused of inciting violence over the Gaza crisis.
The Bradford East MP said his comments were not meant to support Hamas rocket attacks and "if they gave the opposite impression, I apologise".
The statement came after the Board of Deputies of British Jews called on LibDem leader Nick Clegg to withdraw the party whip from Mr Ward, whose membership was suspended for a period following previous controversial remarks about Israel and the Jews.
Following his statement, the Liberal Democrats said that Mr Ward would meet chief whip Don Foster "in due course" after which a decision would be made on whether disciplinary action should be taken.
Mr Ward was widely accused of inciting violence with a tweet on Tuesday night in which he said: "The big question is - if I lived in Gaza would I fire a rocket? - probably yes."
The LibDems said they "utterly condemned" the remarks, which "are not representative of the Liberal Democrats".
Yesterday Mr Ward issued a statement in which he said: "I utterly condemn the violence on both sides in Israel and Gaza.
"I condemn the actions of Hamas, and my comments were not in support of firing rockets into Israel."
A LibDem spokesman said that in light of the "categorical apology" the party and whips would decide whether to take disciplinary action.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article