Labour claimant Stuart MacLennan sacked over Twitter rants

Philippe Naughton & ,}

The ubiquitous choosing debate claimed the initial scalp currently when Labour sacked one of the possibilities in Scotland who posted dozens of descent comments on his Twitter page.

The fantastic "Twitter suicide" overshadowed Labour"s grave campaign launch in Scotland and left Gordon Brown fuming.

Stuart MacLennan, 24, a rising star of the Scottish Labour Party who was standing in the Moray constituency, close down his comment on the microblogging site early this sunrise after The Scottish Sun reported that he had branded the aged "coffin-dodgers".

He had additionally marked down the Commons Speaker John Bercow a "t**", David Cameron a "t***" and Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, "a b******".

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Nor was his madness singular to the domestic world. The Sun reported that Mr MacLennan called the X Factor decider Louis Walsh a "c***", referred to Jedward as "odious small s***s" and wrote: "I f****** hatred Paolo Nutini".

Mr MacLennan, who had been graphic campaigning with Mr Brown"s wife, Sarah, apologised for his "very silly" poise and certified he had let himself down.

"Some of the things I twittered prior to I became a claimant were very, very stupid and I can see they are offensive," he said. "I have let myself and my friends down and am unequivocally sorry."

Although usurpation that his remarks were "foolish", Scottish Labour officials primarily stood by Mr MacLennan, who functions for Labour at the Scottish Parliament and is Secretary of Scottish Young Labour. They forked out that he was immature and had right away realised the blunder of his ways.

But the Tories and SNP scented red blood and changed in to conflict mode, job for Labour to pouch their claimant for his unsuitable comments. It shortly became clear that Mr MacLennan whose Twitter supporters were pronounced to have enclosed Ed Balls and John Prescott had been magnanimous with the expletives given being declared as a impending parliamentary candidate.

The outcome was a quite fantastic "Twitter suicide".

A Scottish Labour orator reliable that Mr MacLennan had been forsaken as the claimant for Moray for "the all unsuitable denunciation that he has voiced online".

He added: "Stuart MacLennan is no longer a Labour Party claimant nor eligible to hold bureau as a Labour Party representative."

Out on the debate trail, Gordon Brown said: "A claimant has done a mistake. Its unacceptable. That claimant has got to resign.

"I have done it positively transparent what my views are: we cannot have people standing as possibilities for the Labour Party who demonstrate these views, so that candidate will not be a claimant for the Labour."

The Tories and the SNP questioned because Jim Murphy, the Scottish Secretary, had not changed some-more fast to remove the claimant after this morning"s newspaper report.

Mr Murphy told the BBC News Channel: "Once we became wakeful of all the comment he has posted on Twitter, we were left with no choice but to pouch this individual.

"He was a immature candidate, but thats no excuse. He was penetrating to rivet voters by Twitter but thats no forgive for the balderdash and descent and hurtful comments that he made.

"Once were we entirely wakeful of that, we took the right action, that was to sack him as a claimant and to postpone him from membership of the Labour Party and not to concede him to hold bureau in the Labour Party."

Asked because he had not acted sooner, Mr Murphy said: "I am not a supporter of this people Twitter feed so I had no thought of these comments, and no one in the Labour Party did."

He added: "I would similar to to apologize to Labour electorate in that constituency for the crack of certitude that this one particular has carried out and the approach in that he behaved."

Angus Robertson, the SNP"s MP for Moray, said: "Only an hour prior to this announcement, Jim Murphy was observant he could stay as a claimant and perplexing to brush off these vast comments.

"However, he has been overruled and obviously has no authority. Did Gordon Brown discuss it his Scottish Secretary what to do?

"This situation has utterly ravaged Labours debate launch today, but questions contingency be asked as most of these comments have been online for months, and as if Labour colleagues have been well wakeful of them."