Liberal Democrat candidate forced to quit after vile anti-gay and racist slurs come to light
The Lib Dems have now launched a disciplinary investigation against Kevin McNamara (Yourthurrockfilms/YouTube)
Liberal Democrat candidate Kevin McNamara has been forced to step down ahead of the general election after a series of tweets using homophobic and racist slurs were unearthed.
The party said it had “immediately opened disciplinary investigations” against McNamara, who was the party’s candidate for Thurrock.
Screenshots of his tweets between 2009 and 2010 reveal racial and homophobic slurs, calling another Twitter user a “f****t”. A further tweet from 2011 shows him making a sexist comment.
Lib Dem candidate Kevin McNamara stands down as cashe of racist tweets surface. Doesn’t sound liberal by any stretch but ‘Twitter resignations’ are a thing nowadays.#DailyRacism pic.twitter.com/qlhxVtOaa5
— TeleBan (@ban_tele) November 12, 2019
Shockingly, McNamara is an honorary vice president of the Lib Dems’ ethnic minority group, Campaign for Race Equality (LCRE).
“I am deeply sorry for the comments that I made that are currently being reported in the press,” McNamara said on Monday evening.
“These words are deeply offensive and I apologise profusely to everybody that I have offended with these tweets.
“I would never want to undermine the voices of those communities with slurs or degradation and it’s important that people who want to represent the public are held to the very highest standard.
“I am resigning as a candidate with immediate effect for the upcoming election. I apologise to all of those I have let down with my past conduct and will work hard to regain their trust.”
Screenshots of McNamara’s past tweets (Twitter)
Kevin McNamara has now set his Twitter account to protected, so that only approved followers can view his tweets.
His prospective constituency of Thurrock in Essex has come under the spotlight recently as its incumbent Tory MP, Jackie Doyle-Price, was revealed to have tweeted ‘anti-trans’ comments.
Doyle-Price publicly agreed with Piers Morgan that the gender debate is “absolutely f**king nuts” and “discriminatory towards women,” adding that “self declaration of gender WILL be abused by those inclined.”
