Last Updated on February 17, 2022
A prospective Parliamentary candidate for the Liberal Democrats, Galen Milne, has been dropped after he said that Tories should be “burned at the stake.”
The comments made on social media by the Liberal Democrat, who stood for the Scottish seat of Banff and Buchan in the 2017 General Election, were revealed on Saturday.
Naming Prime Minister Boris Johnson, among other members of his cabinet, Milne said they should be “hung, drawn and quartered, with each quarter being sent to the 4 corners of the UK to be burned at the stake.”
He also described Conservative MPs as “Tory rats” who “rear their ugly heads.”
The Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party, Andrew Bowie MP, urged the leader of the Liberal Democrats, Jo Swinson, to suspend Milne in a statement:
Jo Swinson said she would do anything to stop Brexit but surely she can’t endorse this. She has criticised “harsh, hostile politics” in the past but this seems to be the consequence of her extreme position on Brexit. If she doesn’t act against senior members of her own party threatening violence against MPs then she will be exposed as a hypocrite.
Milne was dropped on Monday, after a spokesman for the Scottish Liberal Democrats described his language as “unacceptable and offensive.”
After he was dropped, Milne apologised, saying that he “deeply” regretted what he said, and wished to “apologise to anyone that [he has] offended.”
Jacob Rees Mogg MP, the current Leader of the House of Commons, and who was one of the cabinet members targeted in Milne’s post, responded to the incident on Twitter in his familiarly witty manner:
Typical Lib Dem. Mr Milne should get his facts straight. As Lord President of the Council, I am entitled to the privilege of being beheaded. https://t.co/5D1YIuUCk6
— Jacob Rees-Mogg (@Jacob_Rees_Mogg) September 16, 2019
Another Liberal Democrat candidate was in hot water this week, after it was revealed she had made comments insinuating that her prospective North Devon constituency voted Leave because it is “98% white,” and because “people aren’t exposed to people from other countries, they don’t travel a lot.” Kirsten Johnson struggled to back up her points in an interview with the BBC, where she “trailed off” after she was questioned about them.
