Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Chairman of north-east Conservative association tells MEP to ‘go back to your country of birth’ in tweet

Conrad Ritchie at Peterhead Engineers Development
Conrad Ritchie at Peterhead Engineers Development

Former MEP Christian Allard claims Brexit has encouraged xenophobia and racism and admits he is regularly told to “go home”.

The latest such remarks to be made to French-born SNP politician came from Conrad Ritchie, chairman of the Banff and Buchan Conservative Association and formerly of global engineering firm Score Group.

During a political debate on Twitter, Mr Ritchie tweeted Mr Allard and said: “Your SNP cult has created this hate fuelled separation environment… Not happy, then go back to your country of birth, simple.”

Mr Allard retweeted the comment and wrote: “Another one taking the time to show me my own front door. I live here, I can’t undo my 3 children and my 4 grandchildren, I can’t undo my life in the UK. If not #indyref2020 then what?”

The interaction continued with Mr Ritchie saying “We all have choices… I have not shown you the door, I simply pointed out that you have a choice.”

Screenshots of the tweets were taken before they were deleted

Mr Ritchie subsequently deleted the tweets and when contacted said yesterday: “One of the tweets in our exchange was poorly worded.

“I did not mean to cause Mr Allard any offence.”

Mr Allard, who has lived in Scotland for 35 years, said: “Telling me to go home is asking me to head to Torry – what have we become?

“We never got this kind of approach before Brexit but since then it has been awful.

“As a politician I deal with it and respond as I did here but for others on the street they have to report it to the police.

“There is no place in Scotland for xenophobia or racism.”