Labour’s Hartlepool by-election candidate apologises for slur about Cabinet minister and ‘Tory MILF’ tweet
LABOUR’S new candidate for the crunch Hartlepool by-election has apologised for a slur made about a senior Cabinet Minister.
Dr Paul Williams also said he was “sorry” for tweeting about his fondness for “Tory MILFS”.
In 2011 he compared then defence secretary Liam Fox to infamous “Uncle Monty” in the hit 80s film Withnail and I.
The character attempts to force himself on a young man.
At the time Dr Fox was under fire over claims he had misled the press about a burglary at his flat.
Dr Williams tweeted: “Am I the only one to read the sentence containing Liam Fox, burglary and young man in spare room to think of a scene in Withnail and I?”
In another tweet that year he asked his followers “do you have a favourite Tory MILF?” The acronym is slang for an attractive older woman.
Today he told The Sun: “These tweets were inappropriate and I am sorry for using such language.
“They were from a decade ago, which doesn’t diminish the fact that they were wrong, but I want to reassure people that I wouldn’t dream of making comments like this now.”
The Hartlepool by-election has been sparked by the resignation of Mike Hill, who quit amid allegations of sexual harassment.
Dr Williams was MP for Stockton South from 2017 until 2019, when he lost his seat as the Red Wall was swept away in Boris Johnson’s landslide victory.
Asked if use of the word ‘MILF’ was appropriate during a visit to Glasgow, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said: “No it isn’t and Hartlepool is obviously a very important by-election for us.”
The by-election is seen as a key test of Sir Keir’s leadership as he seeks to defend a seat in Labour’s heartlands, with so much of it falling to the Conservatives in the 2019 general election.