Labour candidate Douglas Beattie faces suspension after accusing British troops in Northern Ireland of having ‘blood on their hands’
Wannabe MP posted the series of rants on Twitter with the worst of his hatred directed at military veterans
A LABOUR general election candidate faces suspension after accusing British troops in Northern Ireland of having “blood on their hands”.
Wannabe MP for Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale Douglas Beattie also branded the remembrance poppy “a propaganda symbol”.
And he spread a “queue here to piss on Thatcher’s grave” poster the day the former Tory PM died.
The warped Labour councillor for Camden posted the series of rants on Twitter, with the worst of his hatred directed at military veterans.
In June 2012, he posted a tweet that read: “Peace takes courage. Few actors in Troubles without blood on hands, inc many soldiers”.
Beattie - who also works for the Forces Watch campaign group which is highly critical of service personnel - has also lashed out at all Falkland Islanders.
He replied to an official Twitter account for the South Atlantic territory appealing for support by saying: “Sorry no thanks. Blood on all your hands”.
The attacks breach strict Labour Party rules on preaching extreme or offensive views.
Party leader Jeremy Corbyn was under heavy pressure last night to suspend or expel Beattie from the party.
But as the deadline for submitting the names of all election candidates was 4pm on Thursday afternoon, Beattie’s name can no longer be removed from ballot papers.
In an embarrassment for Labour, he may now face Scottish Secretary David Mundell in the borders seat as an independent without the party being able to field a candidate.
Our revelation also sparked serious doubts over the views of other unvetted Labour candidates.
The party was under huge pressure to find enough people to fill all 632 constituencies in England, Scotland and Wales in the three weeks since Theresa May called the snap election.
After The Sun confronted Labour with Beattie’s offensive rants last night, party chiefs forced him to grovel and say sorry.
Mr Beattie said: “I apologise unreservedly for any offence these tweets may have caused”.
A Labour Party spokeswoman added: “The Labour Party does not share these views and is proud to support our armed forces”.
But doubt over the candidate’s future in the party remained last night after senior officials also refused to say whether he would be suspended.
Tories last night questioned whether Labour have had enough time to carry out full vetting procedures on all of their candidates.
Ex-Army officer Johnny Mercer, the former Tory MP for Plymouth Moor View who is running again, said: “Douglas Beattie’s views are obviously deeply offensive to service veterans, but it is no surprise he has found a home with Jeremy Corbyn.
“Selecting candidates of this nature should have been far beneath the Labour Party. How many more are out there like this?
It also emerged that one of Mr Corbyn’s new election aides is a hard-left trade unionist who opposes the Queen, the British Army and the national anthem.
Tim Lezard posted a series of tweets boasting how he refused to sing the national anthem because “I don’t believe the Queen should reign over us”.
On the Queen’s birthday he wrote: “Congratulations to Queen Elizabeth, who managed to be born into the Royal Family, outlive her father and not die yet.”
In another shocking post he said “paedophiles” should join the army and “abuse a foreign kid for just £1,000!”.