An SNP council election candidate has apologised for a tweet responding to an article about racism in Scotland.
Diane Tortolano, who is standing for the Bannockburn ward in the May 5 council elections, posted a tweet in October last year in response to an article by Jubemi Iyiku, a Nigerian born Scot talking about his experience of racism in Scotland.
Retweeting a link to the article, she then tweeted “what a load of sh*t”.
Iyiku had talked about his experiences of racism when he moved from London to Stranraer in Dumfries and Galloway. His article also described Black Lives Matter protests across Scotland following the murder of George Floyd in the USA.
After the tweet was brought to the attention of the SNP, however, Ms Tortolano said this week: “I can only apologise for what was a stupid comment from me. I reacted to a headline without reading the story.
“I in no way dismiss the experiences that any individual has of racist behaviour in Scotland. I’d apologise not only to the individual involved but to anyone else offended by my thoughtless Tweet.
“I’ve now deleted my Twitter account, as looking back it’s clear that language I’ve used reflected the time when I’d not thought of standing for elected office and is unsuitable for anyone entering the political fray.”
Local Tories, however, criticised the SNP candidate, who was originally announced as standing for Stirling East but was moved to the Bannockburn ward after longstanding SNP councillor Alasdair MacPherson resigned from the party to stand as an independent.
Conservative MSP Alexander Stewart said: “For this SNP endorsed council candidate to express such an appalling opinion about the honest view of a young black man’s experiences of racism is deeply concerning.
“Councillors, as with all elected representatives, should represent their entire community, no matter what their ethnicity, to understand their lives and the problems they face.
“To believe it is ok to write such a crass and ignorant comment, displaying no empathy for someone’s lived experience, is totally unacceptable.”
Following the 2017 election Councillor Rob Davies resigned from Stirling Council’s Tory group after refusing to apologise for offensive tweets. Alastair Majury was allowed to remain a Tory councillor after publicly apologising for his own social media conduct. Both are standing on May 5 as Independents in Forth and Endrick and Dunblane and Bridge of Allan wards respectively.
