CONTROVERSIAL columnist Katie Hopkins has entered into a war of words with Police Scotland after claiming to have been forced to return to UK from Australia after insulting a Scottish nurse who survived Ebola.

Ms Hopkins claimed in an interview that she was "repatriated" by police after tweeting: "Little sweaty jocks, sending us Ebola bombs in the form of sweaty Glaswegians just isn't cricket".

The comments came after it emerged that nurse Pauline Cafferkey, who volunteered to help in the fight against Ebola, was diagnosed with the deadly virus on her return to Glasgow from Sierra Leone in 2014.

But a spokesman for Police Scotland questioned her claim insisting that suspects would not be repatriated without a warrant first being issued.

Ms Hopkins, who was dropped by Mail Online last month after two years "by mutal constent", says she was repatriated by police to answer claims of racism while in Australia.

The Herald:

Her claim was questioned by Police Scotland, who said nobody would be repatriated for questioning and not without a warrant.

Despite a petition signed by more than 20,000 calling for her arrest, the police found “no evidence of criminality” following their investigation two years ago.

Police had been investigating complaints that ran into hundreds over posts by the former Apprentice contestant which called the nurse as a "sweaty Glaswegian".

The probe was described as a "waste of time" by some, including then UKIP leader Nigel Farage.

Ms Hopkins, who earlier this year had her LBC radio show taken off the air following a tweet in which she called for a "final solution" in the wake of the Manchester Arena bombing, spoke of the probe after making highly offensive comments about Ms Cafferkey in an interview for a podcast by right-wing provocateur and former University of Glasgow rector candidate Milo Yiannopoulos.

She said: " I was in Australia for travel and the police rang in the middle of the night and said we are going to repatriate you to the UK for this Tweet."

The Herald:

Mr Yiannopoulos, the outspoken former senior editor of the Breitbart website that backed Donald Trump, replied: "They brought you home from Australia?"

Ms Hopkins said: "Yes."

The Herald:

The Herald:

She went on: "They didn't like sweaty jocks. Socks or jocks. I muddled the two. And one of them was racist. Is sweaty sock or jocks racist?

"They felt it was racist because 15 different police forces had received reports that it was a racist...[ remark].

The Herald:

"I had a phone call saying we are repatriating you because you called us 'sweaty socks'. I've gotta get my head around this. Let me wake up a little bit. It's still not making sense."

Mr Yiannopoulos responded: "Because the definition of racism now is that someone somewhere said,' it really hurt my feelings'."

The Herald:

Remarking on the isolated case of Pauline Cafferkey, who was transferred from London to Glasgow after contracting the virus, she said: “Glaswegian ebola patient moved to London’s Royal Free Hospital. Not so independent when it matters most are we jocksville?”

She further perpetuated a derogatory stereotype by describing Scottish people as “sweaty jocks”.

“Sending us Ebola bombs in the form of sweaty Glaswegians just isn’t cricket,” she added.

However, after a five-month inquiry, police decided to take no further action.

The Herald approached sources close to Ms Cafferkey but they declined to comment on Ms Hopkins.

Ms Hopkins whose columns and tweets have been accused of deliberate provocation rather than legitimate commentary, explained that Ms Cafferkey had returned to the UK with a "temperature of 455" and was carrying Ebola "but she thought, 'I'll carry along because I would quite like to get home'".

She added: "I called her the Ebola bomb..."

The Herald:

"I was like if any more sweaty jocks or socks, whatever I called them want to be an Ebola bomb please to stay in the African country to whence you went."

Mr Yiannopoulos, originally from Kent, said: "What upsets me the most about this and it's the reason I don't go home very often is because I think I'm illegal in my own country. Some of the stuff I have said about religion and peace I would be in jail."

He added: "The thing that annoys me most about the way you are treated is that most of what you say, if not everything that you say is true. You say it in an amusing and provocative way..."

A Police Scotland spokeswoman said there is "nothing to indicate anyone from Police Scotland contacted Katie Hopkins".

She added: "We wouldn't bring someone back just for questioning. They'd have to be brought back under a warrant."

Ms Hopkins - praised as a "powerful writer" by US president Donald Trump - joined Mail Online in September 2015 after previously writing for The Sun.

Ms Hopkins, who rose to fame after taking part in the third series of BBC reality show The Apprentice, has announced plans to launch a weekly online TV show, filmed at the Westminster Live studios.

In 2014, she remarked on the isolated case of Pauline Cafferkey, who was transferred from London to Glasgow after contracting the virus, on Twitter.

Addressing her 830,000 followers she said: “Glaswegian ebola patient moved to London’s Royal Free Hospital. Not so independent when it matters most are we jocksville?”

Ms Cafferkey received specialist treatment at the Royal Free Hospital in north London and has since made a full recovery.