Labour ‘full of queers’: Minister attacked for ‘vile’ retweet

A Conservative minister has been forced to apologize after retweeting a poem that said Ed Miliband’s Labour Party is “full of queers,” leading outraged MPs to demand his resignation.

Business Minister Matt Hancock said he was “incredibly sorry” after he retweeted the offensive poem, which claimed Labour had been rejected by its traditional support base because of its prominent homosexual members.

The tweet, which Hancock quickly deleted, read: “The party run by young Ed is quietly going quite dead. Bereft of ideas, quite full of queers, no wonder the faithful have fled."

DT @matthancockmp: RT @In_A_Flap: @matthancockmp the party run by young Ed is quietly going quite ... http://t.co/yMGsbbMEkb

— Tweets MPs Delete (@deletedbyMPs) October 2, 2014

Labour MPs immediately called on Prime Minister David Cameron to fire Hancock. Homosexual Labour MP Chris Bryant called the comment “vile” and said Hancock should be sacked.

Amazed @matthancockmp sends vile tweet about "queers". Cameron shd sack him now. pic.twitter.com/wHptYH3HPH

— Chris Bryant (@ChrisBryantMP) October 2, 2014

Hancock, who has 17,300 followers on Twitter, deleted the tweet from his account and quickly posted an apology, claiming the retweet was “a total accident.”

“I wholeheartedly disagree with offensive comment in the tweet & am incredibly sorry for any offence caused,” he tweeted. The poem can no longer be found on the account where it originated, @In_A_Flap.

Previous RT was a total accident. I wholeheartedly disagree with offensive comment in the tweet & am incredibly sorry for any offence caused

— Matt Hancock (@matthancockmp) October 2, 2014

In honor of National Poetry Day, Hancock had previously tweeted his own verse, which read: “There was a young man called Ed, whose deficit ne'er entered his head. He simply forgot, he's losing the plot. So I’m voting Cameron instead.”

The pitfalls of mixing poetry and politics.