A TORY councillor has deleted his Twitter account after stumbling into his second scandal in little more than a year.
Todd Ferguson, the depute leader of the Tories in North Ayrshire, was forced to apologise in 2017 after suggesting a Dutch woman who lives in Scotland shouldn’t have an opinion on Scottish politics.
In a now deleted tweet, Ferguson, suggested the views of Joy Brahim, his SNP rival in the local elections, were irrelevant as she came from Holland.
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“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 tweeted, 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.
After The National alerted Scottish Tory HQ to his social media, Ferguson 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, a rant on social media suggested Ferguson's apology wasn’t as sincere as he'd claimed.
Taking to Twitter, he wrote: “JoyoftheSNP, a fellow Cllr, went on a witch hunt when I asked why she wanted to break up the U.K. being from the EU. Despite living in this country for seven years, she is not a citizen, but is happily pocketing two tax payer funded jobs via the SNP.
"Joy is so 'abhorrent' of 'racist' and 'xenophobic' comments that she has tweeted approximately the grand sum of absolutely nothing to condemn the SNP's Gillian Martin for severe racist, homophobic and transphobia comments – therein lies the problem with the SNP. "
Cllr Brahim said it was time for Ferguson to consider his position.
“Todd Ferguson was condemned nationally last year for his xenophobic comments, yet instead of suspending him, the North Ayrshire Tories made him depute leader.
“He has been actively trying to discredit me on social media purely because I am an EU citizen.
“Realising that his obsession was still ongoing, I have actually started asking council officers not to make joint engagements as I am not comfortable being around Mr Ferguson.
“This is not just about his xenophobia or his personal attacks on me though – he has displayed unacceptable behaviour towards many of his own constituents, having publicly called for people not to use a constituent’s business because its owner has a differing political opinion.
“Only recently he referred to a constituent on Twitter as a 'tardo', presumably meant as a slur against people with learning difficulties.
“His heinous views and actions make him unfit to serve and it is time for him to resign.”
After being contacted by The National on this morning, Ferguson deleted his account.
He said: “I apologise if my tweet was taken out of context and caused upset to the councillor involved, which was absolutely not my intention.”
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