This Falklands veteran was probed by COPS over a Brexit coup joke

Paul Sims

Published: 0:11, 17 Jun 2019
Updated: 9:45, 17 Jun 2019

A DECORATED war veteran was quizzed by cops for posting a joke tweet saying: “Maybe it’s time for a military coup to sort Brexit out.”

Tony McNally, 57, had two detectives call at his home.

Decorated war veteran Tony McNally, 57, had cops call at his home over a jokey Brexit tweetCredit: North News and Pictures

He said: “The tweet was just a tongue-in-cheek, off-the-cuff remark.

“I couldn’t start a military coup! It was a waste of police time, heavy-handed and totally unnecessary.”

His ordeal emerged as cops ruled out action against leftie comic Jo Brand, 61.

She caused a row by suggesting on the BBC that political protesters hurl battery acid instead of milkshakes.

'WASTE OF POLICE TIME'

Tony argued: “She won’t be spoken to by police about what she said because it’s under the guise of comedy.

“Maybe if I’d put ‘this is just a joke’ I wouldn’t have had people on my doorstep.”

The pro-Brexit dad of two — who served in the Falklands and Northern Ireland — added: “I felt intimidated. I feel like it was an assault on my civil liberties.” He tweeted after reading of a general’s claim that a Jeremy Corbyn government could face an Army mutiny.

But he said the cops compared his post with threats of violence against MPs — raising the neo-Nazi murder of Labour MP Jo Cox before the 2016 Brexit referendum.

The Sun Says

WHY are police wasting time going after a Brexiteer dad who joked about launching a “military coup”?

Tony McNally, 57, is hardly likely to seize control of the nation all by himself. But TWO cops turned up at his door to grill him about his Twitter gag.

It’s an obvious waste of police time, especially when violent crime is soaring and officer numbers are under pressure.

And Brexit backers could be forgiven for wondering why they are yet again being accused of violence — when it’s the Remainers whose rhetoric is sounding increasingly threatening.