{"id":110589,"date":"2024-08-08T16:14:23","date_gmt":"2024-08-08T16:14:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/08\/labour-mp-for-rochester-strood-apologises-as-tweets-resurface\/"},"modified":"2024-08-08T16:14:23","modified_gmt":"2024-08-08T16:14:23","slug":"labour-mp-for-rochester-strood-apologises-as-tweets-resurface","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/08\/labour-mp-for-rochester-strood-apologises-as-tweets-resurface\/","title":{"rendered":"Labour MP for Rochester &#038; Strood apologises as tweets resurface"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/7ee3\/live\/652da2d0-557c-11ef-b55e-8957cbe5656d.jpg?fit=1024,576&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Labour MP for Rochester &#038; Strood apologises as tweets resurface\" title=\"Labour MP for Rochester &#038; Strood apologises as tweets resurface\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-component=\"text-block\">\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">The Labour MP for Rochester and Strood has apologised after offensive social media posts resurfaced.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">In a statement on Thursday, Lauren Edwards said: &#8220;I have recently been made aware of a small number of tweets that I posted on twitter from over a decade ago, which I now deeply regret.&#8221;<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">One of the since-deleted tweets posted to <!-- --><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/LaurenREdwards\/status\/1821497970711253032\" class=\"sc-c9299ecf-0 bZUiKB\" rel=\"noopener\">X<!-- --><\/a>, formerly Twitter, in July 2009, read: I want these [expletive] Estonian retards out of my flat now!&#8221;<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">The Labour Party declined to comment.<!-- --><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-component=\"text-block\">\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">The 2009 post was made while Ms Edwards was working as parliamentary researcher for Barbara Keeley, the then MP for Worsley and Eccles South, according to the <!-- --><a target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/lnp\/ldrs\" class=\"sc-c9299ecf-0 bZUiKB\" rel=\"noopener\">Local Democracy Reporting Service<!-- --><\/a>.<!-- --><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-component=\"text-block\">\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">In her statement on Thursday, she said the tweets were &#8220;a significant error of judgment on my part, and I apologise wholeheartedly&#8221;.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">She was one of 11 <!-- --><a target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/crg5dj6qzv6o\" class=\"sc-c9299ecf-0 bZUiKB\" rel=\"noopener\">new Labour MPs<!-- --><\/a> elected in Kent on 4 July. <!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">Ms Edwards has also served as a Medway councillor since 2021.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">&#8220;Since becoming a local councillor and more recently an MP, I have seen first-hand the importance of bringing communities together and working with tolerance and respect for all in our society,&#8221; her statement continued.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">&#8220;I pledge to use my platform to continue that important work and dedicate myself to serving all residents of Rochester &amp; Strood.&#8221;<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">Kelly Tolhurst, the former Conservative MP for Rochester and Strood, said she was &#8220;shocked &amp; concerned by the views&#8221; held by Ms Edwards.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">&#8220;She had no concern airing them publicly when working for a Labour MP, only deleting them after public pressure,&#8221; Ms Tolhurst said on <!-- --><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/KellyTolhurst\/status\/1821514941607612851\" class=\"sc-c9299ecf-0 bZUiKB\" rel=\"noopener\">X<!-- --><\/a>.&#8221;<!-- --><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cvg5lyrg86zo\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Labour MP for Rochester and Strood has apologised after offensive social media posts resurfaced. In a statement on Thursday, Lauren Edwards said: &#8220;I have recently been made aware of a small number of tweets that I posted on twitter from over a decade ago, which I now deeply regret.&#8221; One of the since-deleted tweets [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110590,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/7ee3\/live\/652da2d0-557c-11ef-b55e-8957cbe5656d.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[603],"tags":[2598,843,78438,67166,91077,26608],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110589"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110589"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110589\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110591,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110589\/revisions\/110591"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}