A SCOTTISH MP has been forced to apologise after comparing colleagues unhappy about an election result to “survivors of the Holocaust”.
Liberal Democrat Jamie Stone admitted the remark had been “insensitive”.
Mr Stone, 63, a former MSP who was elected MP for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross in June, made the comment in a recent newspaper interview.
Speaking about the aftermath of the 2015 election, when the LibDems collapsed from 57 MPs to eight, he said the mood was much better now the party was up to 12 MPs.
He said: “I’m told... by staff that the parliamentary party is a lot more cheerful.
“They tell me the party in the previous parliament was shellshocked, it was like survivors of the holocaust. Now there’s much more team spirit.”
The Holocaust Educational Trust criticised the comparison between six million Jews being murdered by the Nazis and 49 LibDems losing their seats.
Chief executive Karen Pollock said it was a “thoughtless remark from someone who should know better.”
Mr Stone said: “I apologise unreservedly for this insensitive comment and for any offence that was caused.”
It is not the first time the Gordonstoun-educated MP has caused offence.
Last month, despite taking a candidacy which had been earmarked for a woman, he complained his party didn’t do enough for its female members.
He also suggested empowering women was a “slightly boring” issue.
In an online video about new MPs, he was asked which issue most divided his party.
He said: “We need to have more females in the House of Commons, and that’s something I’d like to try and help sort out.
“Not everyone agrees with me on that, but I know where I’m coming from.”
However Mr Stone was himself at the centre of a row about elbowing aside women when he was allowed to stand for the LibDem candidacy in Caithness in May, despite the party previously saying it would have an all-women shortlist to improve gender balance.
The party leadership saw his local profile as an asset in the fight against the SNP.
The LibDems won the seat by 2044 votes, ousting Nationalist Paul Monaghan, whose outspoken comments had made him a liability to his party.
Mr Monaghan had called the Union Flag the “butcher's apron”, a “rag” for “bigots, zealots and fantasists” and “unfit to wipe the floor of a pigsty”; and called the Royal Family an “obscenity”, Prince Harry a “moron”, the Duchess of Cambridge “Mrs Kate Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, unemployed of London” and the Queen a benefits “claimant”.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel