AN SNP MP has apologised after an "appalling" tweet regarding suicide and Tory sleaze.
In a post on Twitter, Kirsty Blackman wrote: "Missed your bus because your wife committed suicide and so you were two minutes late to your job centre appointment? - SANCTIONED.
“Lobby the Government on behalf of companies who pay you £9k a month? oh, you poor lamb, no sanction for you."
The post came following days of turmoil in Westminster over the sanctions planned for Tory MP Owen Paterson, whose wife took her own life while he was being investigated for paid lobbying.
Mr Paterson has linked the stress of the investigation to his wife's death, and yesterday resigned as an MP.
He also said prior to Ms Blackman's tweet that he had been shocked by MPs behaviour and accused them of "mocking" his wife Rose's death.
Ms Blackman deleted the tweet hours later, and has now apologised.
She wrote: "After some reflection, I have deleted a tweet I made earlier. I offer my unreserved apologies for tweeting it, particularly to anyone who may have been upset or offended. I’m sorry"
People were quick to call out the message, saying it was "appalling" and the MP should be ashamed.
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 hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel