A Liberal Democrat candidate has stepped down after tweets resurfaced where he used deeply racist and homophobic slurs.
The Lib Dems opened a disciplinary investigation into Kevin McNamara, who was their candidate for Thurrock, after an investigation by the Mirror found the old tweets.
In one tweet from 2010, McNamara wrote: “I smelt horse s*** and saw a black guy walk into kfc. this summarises grays [sic].”
In another from the same year, he said: “santander are being c**** and a black girl is walking around with her handbag on her head. Y [sic] ME????”
The candidate for Thurrock, who is also the vice president the organisation Young Liberals UK and the Governor of the NHS-linked mental health support group NELFT, also used the homophobic term “f****t” in a number of tweets. McNamara also regularly used the N-word.
Before the disciplinary investigation could conclude, the candidate made the decision to stand down before making his Twitter account private. He has now deleted his account too.
A spokesman for the Liberal Democrats told the Mirror: “The party has immediately opened disciplinary investigations” and said they would not comment further while an investigation was under way.
McNamara apologised for the tweets after they came to light.
“I am deeply sorry for the comments that I made that are currently being reported in the press,” he said.
“These words are deeply offensive and I apologise profusely to everybody that I have offended with these tweets.
“I would never want to undermine the voices of those communities with slurs or degradation and it’s important that people who want to represent the public are held to the very highest standard.
“I am resigning as a candidate with immediate effect for the upcoming election.
“I apologise to all of those I have let down with my past conduct and will work hard to regain their trust.”
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