Former Tory police minister drops the F-bomb on live TV

[dutchman]

A Tory former policing minister was slammed today after using the word 'f*ckwit' on live TV today.

Nick Herbert used the foul slur while criticising the response to Home Secretary Theresa May's attack on the way ordinary police officers treated the public.

Mrs May had accused PCs of treating the public with 'contempt' and threatened to overhaul the way they ran themselves if they did not sort themselves out.

Her controversial speech to the Police Federation conference in Bournemouth yesterday sparked a furious response from rank and file officers.

But Mr Herbert slammed the police's reaction and accused one senior former policeman of using the foul term to describe Mrs May.

After using the word on the BBC's live Daily Politics programme, hosted by Andrew Neil, Mr Herbert was inundated with complaints and the BBC was forced to apologised for the remark.

The Conservative MP was criticising some police officers’ 'infantile' response to the Home Secretary's speech yesterday..

He said: 'I am afraid there have been a minority who have been outspoken and they are very active on twitter and I saw Peter [Kirkham – former detective chief inspector] himself yesterday described the Home Secretary as a ‘f*ckwit’ in his own twitter line.

'Indeed we should not have any more of it from either police officers or former police officers - this kind of infantile discussion that goes on. What we need is a serious discussion about how policing has got to adapt to today’s age and the things that need to be done to sort out the problems that we have seen.'

He later defended his actions and pointed out that he used the term 'disapprovingly'.

But presenter Jo Coburn interrupted Mr Herbert, telling him 'we won't have any more of that' and cautioning him to speak 'without repeating any of those expletives'.

At the end of the programme Ms Coburn offered a full apology for the outburst, saying it was unacceptable and would not be repeated.

[rebbonk]

May deserved the slur. The woman is about as much use as a chocolate fire guard. How the hell she keeps her job is beyond the comprehension of most in the UK