The chair of the Scottish Liberal Democrats’ election campaign Alex Cole-Hamilton has today called on Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson to disown the Conservative MP for Wells who has been caught in foul-mouthed tirade against a young person.
The Sunday People has the details:
A Tory MP blasted a Scottish girl who said she would vote for independence in a second referendum, saying: “Why don’t you f*** off back to Scotland.”
James Heappey, 36, fighting to stay MP for Wells, Somerset, has apologised, insisting he was joking.
He asked sixth-formers at nearby private Millfield school how they’d vote in a new Scottish referendumWhen one Scots girl said she’d back independence, he lashed out.
Over the weekend, Conservatives in Midlothian complained (justifiably) about the behaviour of SNP activists who were basically obnoxious. When anyone on whatever side uses unhelpful language, it just ramps up the tension some more and it’s not fair on those of us who want to see a civilised political environment.
Alex said:
Ruth Davidson needs to immediately disown the actions of her Conservative MP colleague.
Once again a senior Conservative manages to help the SNP by being obnoxious.
Scots who oppose a divisive independence referendum should vote for the Liberal Democrats because we can manage to oppose independence without swearing at children.
It’s clear, too, that Wells has the chance to choose a much better representative on 8 June. Tessa Munt was a stellar MP who stood up for her constituents with bravery and compassion. This may motivate you to help her out a bit and you can do so here.
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social
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8 Comments
Seems a stretch to me. What has it got to do with Davidson?
Vapid news release.
Sounds like a combination of fake outrage, virtue signaling and trying to make political points out of a non-issue to me. Oh and nobody has the right not to be offended.
In my days at Millfield – it would have been 1968 to be precise – someone from South Africa House came to speak to us about the reasons for Apartheid. We were quite an international community and soon sent him packing !!!
I should imagine Mr Heappey got the same treatment.
“Fake outrage”?
An MP visits a school and tells a pupil to “f*** off” …
And that doesn’t merit outrage?
One extremely rude Tory MP is not exactly world news or earth shaking.
What was much more to the p
The Guardian website shows the detail. The woman certainly ‘spoke truth to power’.
“In confronting Theresa May, Cathy has spoken up for all Britain’s disabled people”
The exchange speaks volumes. The prime minister had only a fixed smile and empty words to offer an angry voter whose small bit of support has been cut”. Frances Ryan
The MP has no doubt done wonders for the independence campaign. The new “Conservatives” – who are in reality more iconoclasts than they are conservatives – expects unquestioning loyalty and if you can’t or won’t give it for you to crawl under a rock and disappear.
El Sid – I cannot see how this is a ‘non-issue’. In my line of work (farming) swearing can be a normal way of conversing with people or venting your frustration, and I’m not easily shocked. The language I’ve sometimes heard used over the last 30-odd years would turn the air a shade of blue which wouldn’t shame a Tory election poster.
But here we’re talking about a politician – an MP – abusing a school student – a child. I’m trying to imagine the scene at Millfield when this occurred, in order to find a reason why this could be regarded as just a bit of light-hearted banter, but I can’t. I agree with others that the Scottish connection is tenuous: independence is not the issue here, it’s the disgusting behaviour of Mr. Heappey. He seems to have left the etiquette of an Army officer behind but brought with him the language used for bullying subordinates.