THE SNP is being urged to sack a council candidate who drove from Dundee to Edinburgh to call the Pope a c***.

Dr Siobhan Tolland - who is a member of the party’s ruling national executive committee - has also previously described the 9/11 terror attacks an "inside job".

Labour said the SNP needed to “urgently reconsider whether this individual is a fit candidate for public office."

In a 2010 post on her social media - uncovered by The Courier - Dr Tolland said that she travelled to Edinburgh to see Pope Benedict XVI and revealed she "might have gone a wee bit too far when she called him a c***".

She posted: "Siobhan thinks everyone should protest against the Pope for his cover up of sex abuse crimes and is going to the demo on Lothian road (outside Usher Hall) on Thursday."

Five days later she then wrote her throat was "sair wi shouting at the Pope".

Dr Tolland told followers that she “got a chance to tell him he should be arrested for child abuse."

The candidate for the Lochee ward - who, according to her Twitter biography, has a PhD in "history political propaganda" - also told Facebook friends that the CIA and the FBI were behind the 2001 attacks on the Twin Towers in the US which killed 2,977 people.

She said: "I think I have overdone the 9/11 govt complicity documentaries over this weekend. False flag, inside job, peal oil I know I know I get it. Yet I canna stop watching them. Help me."

On July 4, she wrote: "The CIA (with help from the FBI) did it."

Then later in the month, she posted: "9/11 was in inside job."

In a post on the ninth anniversary of the attack, Dr Tolland said: "On the anniversary of September 11, we should all vow to honour the victims by trying to get justice and bring the real perpetrators to account."

Later in the month, she said she knew her "9/11 obsession is getting bad" after "shouting at a random bloke about 9/11 being an inside job" during a dream.

Michael Marra, who represents the Lochee ward on Dundee City Council and is now a North East Labour MSP, said: "The SNP nationally and locally must urgently reconsider whether this individual is a fit candidate for public office."

A spokesperson for Dundee SNP said the posts by Dr Tolland are "regrettable and reflect a difficult period in her life which she has long since moved on from".

They added: "Ms Tolland is very sorry and she has deleted them."

Dr Tolland is a prominent activist in the north east, and in a recent campaign to  be the SNP's equalities convenor received a number of high profile endorsements.

Dundee SNP group leader, Cllr John Alexander said Dr Tolland was "a passionate, dedicated and hardworking member who has always had a focus on issues of equality and in tackling social ills."

Former Transport minister Graeme Dey also threw his weight behind Tolland, saying: "I cannot think of anyone more knowledgable on or passionate about equalities issues than Siobhan. Don't know anyone more qualified for this hugely important role."

The Herald:

In 2018, Dr Tolland was involved with a new voluntary code of conduct for independence supporting groups and individuals, urging them to “take a breath before we speak, act, write or behave like a keyboard warrior”. 

The Indy Pledge committed those signed up to “not discriminate on the basis of race, colour, gender, religious beliefs or non-beliefs or sexual orientation.”