Former UUP colleagues round on Kilclooney over '˜Indian' tweets

The cross-bench peer, who is no longer a member of the UUP, provoked widespread anger when he accused Taoiseach Leo Varadkar of “poor manners,” calling him a “typical Indian”.

Lord Kilclooney (John Taylor) made his comments in response to a BBC News story about Mr Varadkar’s visit to Northern Ireland on Monday, claiming the taoiseach doesn’t fully understand Northern Ireland politics, and that he has damaged north/south relations “by being continually offensive and provocative” towards the unionist majority north of the border.

In November last year, Lord Kilclooney acknowledged that him referring to Mr Varadkar as “the Indian” had caused “upset and misunderstanding”.

On that occasion he withdrew the remark.

Mr Varadkar was born in the Republic of Ireland to an Irish mother and Indian father.

He was elected Irish prime minister in June 2017.

In response to the latest reference to the taoiseach’s ethnic background, Ulster Unionist leader Robin Swann tweeted: “Lord Kilclooney’s excuse the last time was due to a restricted number of characters and being unable to spell a name – this time there is NO excuse!”

Former party leader Mike Nesbitt went further, with a tweet which said the peer had referred to Mr Varadkar “in what I can only interpret as a racist comment”.

Upper Bann MLA Doug Beattie also expressed his disapproval, branding the comments “unacceptable previously and unacceptable now.”

Responding to the initial barrage of criticism, Lord Kilclooney told the BBC he rejected the “false accusations of racism”.

He later tweeted: “I am certainly no racist and in particular have an admiration for Indians. A member of the British/Indian APPG, only yesterday I had a reply from 10 Downing St asking for a relaxation of visas for Indians.”

Turning his attention to some of his former political colleagues, Lord Kilclooney said: “It is interesting to note who rushed to label people a racist when they have nothing to offer.”

One of those who spoke out in support of Lord Kilclooney was Belfast woman Lata Sharma, who is of Indian heritage.

Ms Sharma told the Nolan Show that people were often too quick to brand someone a racist.

“I don’t think his intent was to be racist. He just had bad manners the way he spoke,” she said.

Faced with criticism from Sinn Fein’s Michaela Boyle – accusing him of expressing “racist” and “disgusting” sentiments – Lord Kilclooney said: “Coming from someone who applauds the IRA murder campaign of innocent Catholics and Protestants no reasonable person will accept your humbug.”

DUP MLA Christopher Stalford said he thought the peer had “too much time on his hands,” and added: “I don’t know what John Taylor thinks he’s playing at but he doesn’t speak for me.”

Speaking in the Dail on Tueday, Mr Varadkar said he initially thought the Twitter account of Lord Kilclooney was bogus.

“I actually had thought that was a parody account, but seemingly it’s not,” he said.

“It actually is for real, but that’s all I’ll say about that.”