Tory peer sparks anger with tweet referring to people in Yorkshire as 'leftist whingers begging for handouts'
A Conservative peer has come under fire after appearing to suggest that Yorkshire had been "transformed into a county of leftist whingers begging for handouts".
Lord Moylan, who served as an adviser to Boris Johnson when he was Mayor of London, used the phrase in a tweet ahead of visiting the county for a short break.
The Tory peer shared the front page of Saturday's Yorkshire post, which led with the headline: "Levelling up plan 'fails to aid rural economy'".
He added his own comment, saying: "I'm going to Yorkshire for a short break next week. Everything I've read recently in @yorkshirepost makes me fear I'm going to find it transformed into a county of leftist whingers begging for handouts.
"Let's hope that's not the case."
The comment prompted criticism on Twitter, including from Yorkshire Post editor James Mitchinson, who replied: "You'll find folks thoroughly fed up with sneering politicians who think they're better than us and an awful lot of people who cannot stand liars and charlatans.
"It isn't about right and left for us, m'Lord. It's about right and wrong. Enjoy your stay. You are most welcome."
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Alex Sobel, Shadow Environment Minister and MP for Leeds North-West, shared Lord Moylan's tweet, writing: "Yorkshire just demands its fair share of funding and infrastructure investment.
"We don’t begrudge anyone else and definitely aren’t whinging just standing up for ourselves."
Other responses to the peer's initial tweets included Yorkshire residents voicing their own anger, with some suggesting he would not be welcome in the county.
Lord Moylan later tweeted: "I’m having a lovely time in Yorkshire and, as I expected and have always found, the people are much nicer and more sensible than @yorkshirepost makes them seem."
His comments come as Boris Johnson was said to be "absolutely focused on the job" despite the ongoing controversy around alleged lockdown breaches in Downing Street.
The Prime Minister is due to leave London this week, visiting both Scotland and northern England as part of his "levelling up" agenda.
In a statement, Johnson said: "I’m getting out of London this week and taking a simple message with me, this Government is getting on with the job of uniting and levelling up the country."
Johnson is facing a rebellion from his own party, with 15 Tory MPs publicly calling for him to quit, while more are thought to have privately written to the 1922 Committee of backbench Tories calling for a no-confidence vote.
More are poised to do so if the Prime Minister is found to have broken his own coronavirus laws, or further damaging details emerge from the Sue Gray inquiry.
He will face a vote of no confidence if 54 Conservative MPs write to 1922 Committee chairman Sir Graham Brady, and would be ousted if more than half of his MPs subsequently voted against him.
