Labour MP Emma Dent Coad accused of being ‘blinkered by hatred’ after calling Theresa May ugly
3 min read
Labour MP Emma Dent Coad has been accused of being “blinkered by hatred” this morning after taking a swipe at Theresa May’s looks on Twitter.
The Kensington MP commented “love this” on a picture of the Prime Minister captioned: “If a person has ugly thoughts, it begins to show on the face.”
It comes just two weeks after Ms Dent Coad became embroiled in a racism row when online remarks emerged in which she called a black Conservative election candidate a “token ghetto boy”.
MPs heaped criticism on the outspoken backbencher this morning, with one Tory MP telling PoliticsHome she is “blinkered by hatred”.
Former Minister Brandon Lewis condemned the comments on Twitter, saying they revealed a “nasty” side to Labour politics.
Another leading Tory, George Freeman, added: “The re-appearance of misogyny & racial prejudice in Corbyn’s LabourParty isn’t a surprise - the Old Left have always been social as well as economic dinosaurs.”
Elsewhere former minister Hugo Swire asked: “Is this woman really suitable for public life?”.
'IT'S A JOKE'
But Ms Dent Coad defended the post, telling Sky News: “It's a joke, it's Roald Dahl. The things I've had thrown at me over the last few months, you would not believe.
“I've had four rounds of death threats, it is ugly. You know, making a joke about Roald Dahl I think is pretty minor compared to what some people get up to.”
'ROTTEN BASTARDS' TWEET
She faces more scrutiny over her behaviour on social media after sharing a fake meme featuring a homeless elderly woman with the caption "work all your life, pay in to the system all your life. THIS IS WHAT THE ROTTEN BASTARD TORIES GIVE YOU !'.
However the image next to the tweet is not of a British woman, but actually comes from a US report about pensioner poverty across the Atlantic.
The Labour backbencher was forced to apologise earlier this month after being accused of racism over a 2010 blog about Tory election candidate Shaun Bailey, who was seen as a rising star under David Cameron's leadership.
Ms Dent Coad wrote: "It must be said that his constant stigmatisation of the area he was born in as a 'ghetto' has not exactly endeared him to his former neighbours, one of whom calls him 'a free-loading scumbag', another 'the most hated man in North Kensington'.”
But after fierce criticism, she later told BBC Radio London: “"If he feels offended by it, of course I apologise, of course I do."
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