Edinburgh graduate sacked as PPC after Twitter faux pas

An Edinburgh University Students' Association (EUSA) representative has been sacked as a parliamentary candidate following a series of offensive comments on the social networking website Twitter.

Stuart MacLennan—who was the Labour Party candidate for the Moray—described his elderly prospective constituents as “bloody coffin-dodgers” and unleashed a flurry of comments attacking opposition politicians.

He described David Cameron as a "twat", Nick Clegg "a bastard", and the Commons Speaker John Bercow as a "tit". Beyond the political sphere MacLennan referred to X Factor judge Louis Walsh a "cunt" and told his following: "I fucking hate Paolo Nutini".

Mr MacLennan is the Senior Member on EUSA's Committee of Management until the end of the current academic year. He studied Law at the University of Edinburgh and ran unsuccessfully for the sabbatical position of vice president services in 2007.

A Scottish Labour Party spokesperson said: "Stuart MacLennan has been sacked as Labour's candidate for Moray for the totally unacceptable language which he has expressed online.

"On reading the comments in full, the Scottish Labour Party was outraged by their content and Scottish Labour's General Secretary took the decision to suspend his membership of the Labour Party. Stuart MacLennan is no longer a Labour Party candidate nor eligible to hold office as a Labour Party representative.”

Mr MacLennan's suspension forces his resignation as secretary of Scottish Young Labour and means he is likely to lose his job as a political aide in the Scottish Parliament.

Mr MacLennan's downfall, branded a “Twitter suicide”,marks the first casualty of the general election campaign and has led to international media coverage.

Gabi Jones, EUSA Welfare Convener and a friend of MacLennan, told The Journal: “Obviously Stuart was foolish to make the comments he made, but anyone who knows him understands he meant no harm by them. His dry sense of humour just hasn't gone down well.

“He is a lovely person with good intentions and it is such a shame for him. He certainly didn't deserve to be ripped apart by the media in the way he was. I think this is an example of how big political parties fail to give enough advice and support to candidates in un-winnable seats.”