Broadcaster and columnist will no longer host weekly show, after causing outrage with response to Manchester attack

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

The broadcaster Katie Hopkins and LBC have agreed she will leave her job at the radio station with immediate effect.

The news comes after Hopkins called for a “final solution” after the Manchester Arena terrorist attack this week.

Complaints were made to the Metropolitan police about the tweet, while Twitter received repeated reports that the statement was “abusive or harmful”. A Met spokesman said on Tuesday: “We can confirm that a complaint has been received. As is routine, the allegation will be reviewed and assessed by specialist officers.”



Hopkins hosted a weekly show on LBC on Sundays. A spokesman for the broadcaster said: “LBC and Katie Hopkins have agreed that Katie will leave LBC effective immediately.” The station refused to confirm or deny that Hopkins had been sacked, or give details of the severance. Asked for further details, a spokesman said: “That’s all we’re saying.”

There were “massive cheers and applause” from former colleagues in the newsroom after confirmation was received that she would be leaving, the BBC’s media editor, Amol Rajan, reported.

Hopkins’ tweet, made in the hours after the explosion at Manchester Arena, said: “22 dead – number rising. Schofield. Don’t you even dare. Do not be a part of the problem. We need a final solution Machester [sic].”



She later edited the tweet, writing “typo / wording amended”, and then deleted it.

Since LBC’s announcement, Hopkins has posted on Twitter but not mentioned her departure. She said she had written a MailOnline column about the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn.

Katie Hopkins (@KTHopkins) My column on Corbyn, exchanging dead kids for the terrorist sympathising vote-block, posting here soon @MailOnline https://t.co/LWUUsatc3P

Some Hopkins fans said the loss of her LBC show was a blow for freedom of speech. One American supporter tweeted: “Don’t expect UK to protect their little girls from muslim bombers - if u dare talk of the islamic murderers u get fired.”

Hopkins – who found fame on the show The Apprentice, before appearing on the reality TV programmes I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here! and Celebrity Big Brother – has forged a reputation as a provocative rightwing commentator. She has also fronted her own programmes on TLC, including If Katie Hopkins Ruled the World and My Fat Story. The 42-year-old has been accused of spreading Islamophobia and using hate speech to raise her profile.



In the past she has said that she wouldn’t employ obese people because they “look lazy”, and wouldn’t let her children play with those who had working class names. While she has claimed to despise stay-at-home mothers, she has also said working women are “emotional, they cry in the toilets”.

Hopkins, who has 730,000 followers on Twitter, has defended her frequently controversial opinions, arguing that she “gives a voice to the everyday good British citizen”.

In 2015, Hopkins wrote a column for the Sun in which she compared migrants to cockroaches and suggested Europe should use gunboats to stop them crossing the Mediterranean. It provoked more than 400 complaints to the press regulator Ipso, which rejected them, while more than 300,000 signed a petition calling for her to be sacked.

Hopkins left the Sun later that year to write for MailOnline, where she remains a columnist. Last year Hopkins and MailOnline were forced to issue an apology and pay £150,000 in damages for defamatory claims made against a Muslim family in one of her articles.

The column, published in December 2015, said US authorities were right to stop Mohammed Tariq Mahmood, his brother Mohammed Zahid Mahmood and nine children from travelling to Los Angeles to visit Disneyland last year. She suggested the brothers were extremists with links to al-Qaida.

In March, Hopkins failed to win permission to appeal against a high court libel ruling which ordered her to pay £24,000 damages to the writer Jack Monroe, after the columnist wrote tweets suggesting Monroe approved of the defacing of a war memorial during an anti-austerity demonstration in Whitehall.

Bruce Porter, Jr. (@NetworksManager) Don't expect UK to protect their little girls from muslim bombers - if u dare talk of the islamic murderers u get fired.

Katie Hopkins LBC

Some critics provided mock sympathy: With Priyamvada Gopal‏ tweeting: “Poor Katie Hopkins. You can’t call for populace extermination these days without someone taking offence. Anti-fascism gone mad.”

Priyamvada Gopal (@PriyamvadaGopal) Poor Katie Hopkins. You can't call for populace extermination these days without someone taking offence. Anti-fascism gone mad.

Jake Lambert (@LittleLostLad) You have to feel sorry for Katie Hopkins, because she's unable to feel that emotion for herself.

Others simply reacted with glee: