Daily Mail columnist attacks HIV positive Lib Dem candidate
Writing in the Daily Mail, Richard Littlejohn questions Lib Dem candidate’s suitability because of his past and HIV status.
In a frank interview this week, Liberal Democrat candidate for Vauxhall Adrian Hyyrylainen-Trett discussed his past struggle with drugs, mental health problems and bullying. He spoke about how this led to him contracting HIV in a bid for “annihilation”.
He was met with widespread support from across the country, including from Sir Elton John.
However, Daily Mail columnist Richard Littlejohn today wrote a scathing column criticising and mocking Mr Hyyrylainen-Trett. The article, entitled “Meet your Monster Raving Liberal Party candidate”, suggests comparisons with candidates “taking backhanders from dodgy donors, fiddling their expenses, or up to their neck in child abuse scandals”.
Mr Littlejohn mocks Mr Hyyrylainen-Trett’s unusual surname, comparing him to Monty Python’s Silly Party character “Tarquin Fintim-Limbim-Whimbim-Lim-Bus-Stop-F’Tang-F’Tang-Olé -Biscuit-Barrel” and went on to question whether his “sordid past” made him suitable to be elected as an MP.
He writes: “Mr Hyyrylainen-Trett says his reckless behaviour was a result of being the victim of ‘homophobic bullying’ when he was younger, which set him on the path to ‘self-annihiliation’.
“So it might be, but he wouldn’t have an ‘HIV status’ to confront if he hadn’t tried to deliberately infect himself.
“Look, if someone has been bullied and subsequently gone off the rails then they are entitled to our sympathy and understanding.
“But does that mean they are a credible candidate to become an MP for a party which could for the second successive parliament be an influential part of a ruling coalition? Would you want an ex-porn star who has tried to commit suicide by HIV, while under the influence of recreational drugs, representing you at Westminster?
“If Hyyrylainen-Trett had been an alcoholic Ukip candidate — or Tory, for that matter — who’d been caught consorting with street-corner prostitutes in a deliberate attempt to catch AIDS, we’d never have heard the last of it.
“His sordid past would have been used to smear his entire party. Yet not once, unless I’ve missed something, have I heard Nick Clegg being asked to comment on whether the Monster Raving Liberal Party candidate in Vauxhall is a fit and proper person to become an MP.”
In 2013, Richard Littlejohn wrote that Lucy Meadows was unsuitable to be a teacher because she was trans. Ms Meadows later took her own life.
