A Merseyside politician who has received appalling abuse over the last year asked "Why the f*** hasn't he died yet" when the Duke of Edinburgh was suffering ill health in December 2011.
Earlier this week, Labour councillor Janette Williamson gave a powerful speech at Wallasey Town Hall, detailing the offensive messages she has received over the last year, including one person saying she is “not worth raping” .
In the speech, she admitted to indulging in abusive online behaviour herself. It turns out Cllr Williamson was referring to the grotesque tweet about Prince Philip eight years ago, shortly before she was elected as a councillor in Liscard, Wallasey.
It has also been claimed that Cllr Williamson, deputy leader of Wirral Council , has made other ill-judged comments on Twitter. The Daily Mirror reported at the time that she said the then Labour leader Ed Miliband “needs to grow a set of Ed Balls” .
Cllr Williamson is also reported to have said: “I'm here to reintroduce Marxism back into the Labour Party," and to have praised the Militant Tendency, the controversial far-left campaign group that ran the Liverpool Labour Party in the 1980s.
In a statement released by Labour when the Prince Philip comments were first discovered, Ms Williamson said: "I would like to make a full and unreserved apology for my comments on Twitter.
"I appreciate the tone and content of the messages was completely inappropriate and would like to say sorry for any offence caused.
"I feel I have let myself and the Labour Party down and promise to learn from my mistake."
Speaking to the ECHO today, Cllr Williamson said: "The comments from 2011 were made before I was a councillor and I apologised immediately and publicly for the Prince Phillip one, and repeated that apology at Full Council this week in my opening statement.
"My comment was crass and puerile. I learnt a valuable lesson then about language used and how it can be offensive and corrosive.
"The point of my motion on Monday was to ask others to think very carefully about their own language, especially around women, and how their language has consequences.
