YET another Tory councillor from North Ayrshire has found themselves in the middle of a social media storm after using a secretive Twitter account to criticise the physical appearance of SNP politicians.
In the last few months, Scott Gallacher, the councillor for Irvine West, described Aberdeen North MP Kirsty Blackman as having a “face that would put hens off the lay,” and new health secretary Jeanne Freeman as having a “face like a road map of Birmingham”.
READ MORE: Who’s all in Ruth Davidson’s Hall of Conservative Shame?
The vile slurs came from the account, SGMK0, which stands for Scott Gallacher, Mother Kilwinning 0 - the name and number of the Masonic lodge the councillor is actively involved with.
Before his election he tweeted that women shouldn’t be on Question Time, writing: “Do none of them have a piece to make for their husbands to take to work tomorrow?”
He also described SNP supporters as “Natzis”.
The account was uncovered by local SNP supporter, @Gavmacn.
When confronted by The National, Gallacher said: “I’d hate for anyone to be genuinely upset by something I tweeted, and apologise to anyone who was.”
The row comes just a day after one of Gallacher’s colleagues was forced to apologise for comments made about a Dutch born SNP councillor for the second time in little more than a year.
Todd Ferguson, the depute leader of the Tories in North Ayrshire, was forced to say sorry in 2017 after suggesting Joy Brahim, his SNP rival in the local elections, was irrelevant as she came from Holland.
He tweeted: “I asked the local #SNP candidate why they supported the break up of the UK, being Dutch. The answer I got was that her partner is Scottish.”
He then followed it up with another tweet saying, “Perhaps she forgot Market Garden” a reference to an allied military operation in the second world war, where large swathes of Holland were liberated from the Nazis.
Ferguson later deleted the comment, and posted an apology saying: “I sincerely apologise for a recent tweet of mine that may have caused offence. The tweet in question has since been deleted.”
However, over the weekend Ferguson took to Twitter to say that Brahim was “not a citizen, but is happily pocketing two tax payer funded jobs via the SNP”.
After being contacted by The National on Monday morning, Ferguson deleted his account.
An SNP spokesperson said: “What this latest revelation exposes is a pattern of extremely troubling behaviour among elected Tory representatives in North Ayrshire. Xenophobia, misogyny and ugly abuse of this kind has no place in Scottish politics - especially from councillors.
“Ruth Davidson needs to get a grip of these out of control right-wingers in the ranks of her own party.”
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