John O'Dowd

In the post on Saturday afternoon, which was accompanied by a picture of the prime minister, Mr O’Dowd accused the government of “using everyone of us in some form of twisted medical experiment”.

He added: ”Do you honestly believe the rest of Europe is wrong & this balloon and his ilk are right. If you are not angry it’s time to get angry, we are on the brink of disaster!”

However, he was quickly criticised for the message by unionists.

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Lisburn Ulster Unionist councillor Stuart Hughes tweeted: “Most unparliamentary language that does nothing but ratchet up tensions and divide our communities. John O’Dowd is also trashing the credentials of people who have significant scientific experience and expertise as opposed to being a rent a quote like him.”

John Moore said: “An absolutely disgusting example of the politics Sinn Fein are playing with people’s lives. Sinn Fein politicians are deliberately ignoring medical and scientific advice to create panic.”

The political commentator Alex Kane replied to Mr O’Dowd on Twitter.

He said: “John, if, for any reason at all, I described the SF leadership as a ‘shower of bastards’ I’m pretty sure there would have been extreme anger and a demand that I withdraw the comment. These are difficult enough times without this sort of intervention.”

Upper Bann MLA Mr O’Dowd, who failed to unseat Michelle O’Neill as Sinn Fein’s deputy leader last year, made his criticism a day after divisions in the Stormont executive emerged over the strategy for dealing with coronavirus.