A Labour MP has opened up about the \u201chorror\u201d she experienced for the first time after a collection of old racist tweets resurfaced. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lauren Edwards, who ousted the Tories in Rochester and Strood last summer, said she had made a “significant error of judgement” with the tweets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A tweet posted in June 2009 said: “I want these f****** Estonian r****ds out of my flat now!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Speaking exclusively to the Kent Politics Podcast, Edwards explained how \u201cit was a different time with social media\u201d when she posted the tweets, adding that she could see what they looked like taken out of context.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Edwards claimed she was living in a house share with an Estonian in her early 20\u2019s, who kept her awake throwing parties. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A Medway resident was not pleased by the explanation, saying: \u201cwhy do people see Baltic states as fair game [for racism]? Give yourself to the police! We demand justice!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the time, Edwards said she \u201cdeeply regrets\u201d the resurfaced social media posts \u2013 they have now been deleted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The drama came just a month after the Rochester and Strood MP had been elected and followed social media activity from her calling for calm on the summer riots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since the podcast aired, some social media users have left comments on Edward\u2019s public Facebook page, saying that she should delete her profile and resign.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Edwards maintains that she did the right thing by staying off social media for a while, adding: \u201cnow, I\u2019m focused on delivering for those voters who voted for me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A Labour MP has opened up about the \u201chorror\u201d she experienced for the first time after a collection of old racist tweets resurfaced. Lauren Edwards, who ousted the Tories in Rochester and Strood last summer, said she had made a “significant error of judgement” with the tweets. A tweet posted in June 2009 said: “I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":1435,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[223],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kent"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/kentstandard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/kentstandard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/kentstandard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/kentstandard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/kentstandard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1430"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/kentstandard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1440,"href":"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/kentstandard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1430\/revisions\/1440"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/kentstandard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/kentstandard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/kentstandard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/kentstandard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}