THE Tories have ditched a Holyrood candidate who claimed people forced to use food banks were “far from starving”.

In his podcast Craig Ross, who was due to contest Glasgow Pollok for the party next May, was critical of people asking for help to feed their family featured on a Channel 4 news report.

In the comments - unearthed by the Daily Record - he said: “In this world of such tremendous hunger, in this world where people are routinely struggling to eat, in this world where people appear on Channel 4 News and talk about how their children eat but they don’t because they can’t afford to … almost everybody in that world is grossly overweight.

“And again people can’t accept this. People have no idea how fat they are.”

He added: “I’m not saying that every single person who claims to be really hungry and is reliant on charity is also very overweight, but what I am saying is if Channel 4 News is having a reasonable go at showing the reality of food bank usage, then we know that the people that they film are far from starving.

“If anything, their biggest risk is not starvation, it’s diabetes.”

READ MORE: Tory MSP hopeful Craig Ross tries to shame SNP ... with 18 pull-ups

The former lecturer also had a pop at Marcus Rashford, the Manchester United striker who has become a powerful campaigner on poverty during the pandemic. He’s forced the UK Government into multiple U-turns, including on providing meals to poor children.

Just this week, Prime Minister Boris Johnson praised the footballer for holding his government to account. 

Douglas Ross, the Scottish party chief, has also been fulsome in his praise.

Craig Ross, however, was less enthusiastic. He said: “Has Marcus Rashford stood for election to anything? Not that I’m aware of.

“So should we turn ourwelfare policy upside down in order to suit Rashford’s view as to what would be decent?”

The National:

Ross also referred to a historical report which described the Metropolitan Police as “institutionally racist” in the wake of the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence.

He added: “I remember my pal, the Metropolitan police officer, and his mates, and their reaction to that.

“How nauseated they were, how utterly sickened they were, to be told that there was something called institutional racism and that they worked in the institution and therefore they by implication were racists.”

He added: “This is the least racist country in the world.”

Ross described the Human Rights Act as an “obscenity” and said of immigration: “We’ve taken everybody who has been mistreated by Slovakia, and said, ‘Come here, and work a little, and we will make it such that you have in effect won the lottery’.”

He also claimed the idea that the UK had benefited from migration was “false” in terms of “raw economics”.

A spokesman for the SNP said: “These ignorant, outdated and offensive attitudes have no place in modern Scotland.

“But the Tory mask has slipped, showing the party is as backward-looking and out of touch as ever.

"Someone who denies the existence of poverty and racism in our society is clearly not a suitable candidate to be an MSP, and this raises very serious questions about the type of views that are circulating in the Tory party.

Early this morning, the Tories suspended Ross. 

A spokesman said: "We have suspended this candidate and an investigation is under way. These unacceptable comments do not reflect the views of the party."

They later confirmed he was no longer the candidate or a member of the party. 

Taking to Twitter, Ross claimed he was "a real Conservative and unionist" and that he'd be "going to go on say a lot of things that kiddy-on Conservatives and unionists won't like".

Earlier, this month, fitness fanatic Ross was mocked on social media after he claimed nobody in the SNP could do 18 pull ups.