The Scottish National Party (SNP) has become embroiled in a racism row after one of its student leaders called Prime Minister David Cameron an “English twat”.
Roisin McLaren, president of Edinburgh University SNP, said that David Cameron’s pleas to save the 300-year-old union between England and Scotland amounted to little more than “an English twat telling us what to do.”
In an interview for the Guardian newspaper, Miss McLaren launched into an expletive-ridden tirade against the Prime Minister, calling Mr Cameron a “toff Tory politician, who nobody here likes or voted for.” She said of Cameron’s plea to save the Union: “F*ck off! If he’s had any sense, he would have kept his gob shut.”
Yesterday, McLaren apologised for any offence caused, saying that her comments were “open to misinterpretation.”
David Coburn, UKIP candidate for the European Elections in Scotland, told the Telegraph that Miss McLaren’s attack “sounds like racism to me.”
He added: “But as far as I’m concerned the SNP is not the Scottish National Party, it’s the anti-English party.”
“This is Salmond’s whole project and he did it with students by not allowing English students to study for free when Scottish and EU students can.
“He did not have to do that but he did it to stoke resentment in Scotland and also English resentment of Scots. It’s clear some of these Scottish Nationalists are racist.”
A spokesman for the Better Together Campaign, which is opposing independence, said: “So much for the welcoming and friendly nationalism Alex Salmond goes on about so much.
“This kind of anti-English abuse from the SNP is unacceptable and should not be tolerated.”
An SNP spokesman said: “Personal language of this nature is not acceptable. This has been acknowledged and an apology has been given.”
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