Ant Middleton has issued an apology after calling Black Lives Matter campaigners ‘scum’ following protests last weekend.
The SAS: Who Dares Wins star reacted to the violent clashes which saw far-right groups challenge BLM protesters in London.
More than 100 far-right protesters were arrested after attacking Met Police officers and anti-racism demonstrators.
However, Ant branded both groups ‘scum’ in a now-deleted tweet, which read: ‘The extreme left against the extreme right. When did two wrongs make a right. It was only a matter of time. BLM and EDL are not welcome on our streets, absolute scum.
‘What a great example you are to your future generation. Bravo.’
After a wave of backlash, Ant posted an apology video on Monday night (15 June) insisting he is not racist.
‘I’d just like to clarify a tweet I’d put out at the weekend and deleted straight away once I’d re-read it and realised that it could cause offence,’ he began.
‘I put out a tweet or retweeted a video of the violence, the terror and chaos that was happening on the streets of London.
‘Within that tweet I mentioned the BLM and EDL and the word “scum”. At no point was I calling the BLM scum and comparing the two organisations. I want to make that really, really clear. The word scum was used to describe the people in the video that were violent, that were causing terror on the streets of London and setting a bad example for our future generations.’
Ant went on: ‘I was angry and put that tweet out to say that that was unacceptable. For those of you who know me, I am a people’s person, I love people, I’m anti-racist and I’m anti-violence having seen what violence does to people and cities and countries.
‘So I apologise if my tweet came across as offensive, I never meant for that. I’m here to push positive change.’
It comes just a couple of months after Ant, 39, told fans not to change their behaviour during the coronavirus pandemic, tweeting that he refused to allow the disease to ‘dictate’ his life.
But after receiving criticism, he backtracked and told his followers to ‘follow common sense’.
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