An SNP MP has apologised unreservedly after claiming that “murdering babies wasn’t on the Nazi manifesto” in a tweet described by opposition parties as “factually inaccurate and massively insensitive”.
SNP bosses have been urged to take action after Glenrothes and Central Fife MP Peter Grant made the remark on Thursday night in response to a post from broadcaster Andrew Neil which referenced the holocaust.
Mr Neil shared a tweet from the Auschwitz Memorial commemorating a Jewish toddler from Hungary who was murdered by the Nazis before his first birthday in 1944.
He commented: “As accusations of fascism are bandied about today like confetti by the ignorant, ludicrously devaluing the word of any meaning, a reminder of what real fascism can do. And of its unconscionable evil.”
In a now-deleted response, Mr Grant wrote: “You’re more right than you care to admit. Murdering babies wasn’t on the Nazi manifesto.
“Not until they’d been in power several years & stoked up fear & hatred against innocent citizens. Then, and only then, did they show their true colours.”
Glasgow North East SNP MP Anne McLaughlin also seized on Mr Neil’s original tweet, commenting: “And here is MY reminder that ‘real fascism’ didn’t start off talking about murdering children, it talked of ‘reasonable concerns’ raised by ‘respectable people’ in quiet gentle voices.
“NEVER let it sneak up on you. NEVER look away. NEVER regret leaving it too late to speak out.”
https://twitter.com/AnneMcLaughlin/status/1415722315552276483?s=20
Mr Grant’s message, which was posted shortly before 11pm on Thursday, was quickly corrected by Conservative peer Lord Finkelstein, who pointed out that the “offensive tweet doesn’t even have the merit of being true”.
“Hitler and the Nazis were already talking openly of the need to kill babies in 1929,” he wrote. “Would you consider deleting this tweet, Mr Grant? We all make mistakes (I know I do) and you can fix this one.”
Extremely inappropriate
The Board of Deputies of British Jews said suggestions by Mr Grant and Ms McLaughlin that the Nazis only gradually revealed their true aims were made “in apparent attempts to make some sort of comparison to life in the UK today”.
President Marie van der Zyl said: “We are disturbed by the suggestion from some MPs that Nazism only gradually revealed its true aims.
“In reality, Hitler was always open about his aims – in 1925, well before the Nazis came to power, he had already written in Mein Kampf about the need to ‘exterminate… the international poisoners of our people’ and how thousands of Jews should have been ‘subjected to poisonous gas’.
“The overwhelming majority of comparisons to the Nazis are extremely inappropriate, and we would urge people – particular Parliamentarians – to choose their words with far more care.”
Seems Peter Grant is currently in self-isolation. Perhaps he should have disconnected the internet for the duration as well. Surprised that this embarrassing tweet is still up – the Chief Whip needs a word. https://t.co/rTA5t3A2gf
— Alistair Carmichael MP (@amcarmichaelMP) July 16, 2021
Lib Dem MP for Orkney, Alistair Carmichael, said the SNP’s chief whip at Westminster, Owen Thompson, “needs a word” with Mr Grant.
“The horrors of what the Nazi party did were so enormous that it is rarely possible to make any comparison to them without dishonouring the memory of the millions who perished at their hands,” Mr Carmichael said.
“Peter Grant’s tweet is nowhere near the bounds of acceptability. It is factually inaccurate and massively insensitive.
“If he is to remain in a mainstream political party, then his party bosses need to give him the necessary training to understand the offensiveness of what he has done.”
Absolutely abhorrent
Scottish Conservative chief whip, Stephen Kerr, said Mr Grant’s tweet was “absolutely abhorrent and beyond the pale”.
“For an elected SNP MP to post this was hugely offensive as well as being completely inaccurate,” he said.
“It beggars belief that any elected representative would think this sort of language was appropriate as part of a political debate. It has absolutely no place in civil discourse.
Scottish Nationalist MPs have lost all reason.
There's an old law in debate that when you start accusing your opponents of Fascism, you've already lost the argument. pic.twitter.com/sEeuHV6oDl
— Stephen Kerr MSP (@RealStephenKerr) July 16, 2021
“This was a warped tweet and gave a worrying insight into what this SNP MP believes. Peter Grant must urgently apologise and reflect on this shameful behaviour.”
MPs are regularly given talks from charities, including the Holocaust Educational Trust, to educate on the history of the holocaust and the dangers of using the atrocity for political point scoring.
Mr Grant, who is the former leader of Fife Council and the SNP’s former Brexit spokesman at Westminster, did not respond to a request for comment but later tweeted: “I want to apologise unreservedly for a highly insensitive tweet I posted.
I want to apologise unreservedly for a highly insensitive tweet I posted. While I strongly believe we must always be vigilant to the seeds of racism, antisemitism and fascism, I deeply regret how I made that point and I have deleted the tweet.
— Peter Grant MP (@PeterGrantMP) July 16, 2021
“While I strongly believe we must always be vigilant to the seeds of racism, anti-Semitism and fascism, I deeply regret how I made that point and I have deleted the tweet.”
In 2018, Mr Grant apologised after posting a tweet which appeared to mock the beliefs of Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg.
It appeared to play on the assumption that Catholics eat fish on a Friday as part of observing weekly meat abstinence and a row over the broken promise that the UK would leave the Common Fisheries Policy in March 2019.
Mr Grant said he “intended no offence” when he tweeted: “Jacob is a Catholic Brexiteer. On Friday he only sells out fishermen”.
The SNP did not respond to a request for comment.
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