AN SNP candidate has been forced to apologise after dismissing an award-winning musician's account of racism in Scotland as “a load of s***”.
Diane Tortolano, who is standing for election to Stirling Council on May 5, also called the shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy a “piece of s***”.
In other now deleted tweets, the 61-year-old tour guide promoted a post of Aberdeenshire Tory MP Andrew Bowie and Boris Johnson that called them “two talking f***ys”.
She also said a female Fox News TV anchor “needs booted right up the a***”.
Her tweet about racism dates from October 2021, when the award-winning Nigerian-born rapper Bemz described moving from London to Stranraer at the age of 14.
“I never really experienced racism until I came to Stranraer,” he told the Scotsman.
He was called a monkey and his friend’s mother spat on and told to leave the country.
Bemz, 28, whose real name is Jubemi Iyiku, posted a link to the article, which said simply: “Black History Month: ‘I never knew what racism was until I moved to Scotland’.”
Ms Tortolano reacted to it with the comment: “What a load of s**t.”
She now says she did not read the article and that her conduct was “stupid”.
On Saturday, the SNP MP for Stirling, Alyn Smith, described Ms Tortolano as a "great" candidate after he went canvassing with her.
Great @TeamStirlingSNP craic out with our great @theSNP candidates @HamblySnp and Diane Tortolano 👍🏻 pic.twitter.com/0ygLEGH2vs
— Alyn Smith MP 🏴🇪🇺 (@AlynSmith) April 2, 2022
Scottish Conservative MSP Pam Gosal said: “This is a highly offensive tweet that seeks to rubbish the lived experience of someone else.
“She’s effectively telling this man that the racism he experienced in Scotland was imagined.
“This is an example of Scottish exceptionalism at its worst – an ignorant belief that racism is a problem that exists only in other countries, not in Scotland."
Referring to the SNP's recent suspension of policy expert Tim Rideout for suggesting Priti Patel be "sent back to Uganda", Ms Gosal went on: “At FMQs a few weeks ago, I questioned the First Minister about the appalling tweet from the SNP’s former currency advisor about the Home Secretary.
"Nicola Sturgeon assured me she would not stand for any intolerance or race-related abuse in her party.
“If she’s true to her word, the First Minister will drop this person as an SNP candidate.”
Ms Tortolano is one of two SNP candidates in the Bannockburn ward in Stirling.
As the SNP won two of the three seats in the ward at the last local election in 2017, she stands a good chance of being elected a councillor next month.
Her Lisa Nandy tweet dates from January 2020, when the then Labour backbencher was running for the party leadership after the resignation of Jeremy Corbyn.
Ms Tortolano retweeted a message critical of Ms Nandy for attacking the SNP and referring to “divisive nationalism” in Catalonia and Quebec.
Ms Tortolano commented: “This woman is a piece of s**t”.
She deleted her twitter account on Monday.
In a statement issued by SNP HQ in response to the Conservative comments, Ms Tortolano said: “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 any else offended by my thoughtless Tweet.”
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