'Birds, skinny rats and ****s' - Lib Dems condemn party hopeful’s ‘unacceptable’ misogynistic tweets

Liverpool Liberal Democrats have condemned historic social media posts by a new member which include misogynistic remarks about the party’s former national leader.

Last month, the largest opposition group announced former Labour Party member and Liverpool Community Independents candidate Craig Pearson had joined the party with an article on their website. Days later, a series of historic posts were unearthed by Mr Pearson in which he made critical remarks of party members and misogynistic comments about former party leader Jo Swinson.

In a statement, Cllr Liz Makinson, deputy group leader said all candidates standing for the local authority are vetted, with Mr Pearson not currently among their slate.

In a series of posts dating back to 2012, Mr Pearson, who finished second in the Old Swan West ward in last year’s all out city council elections for the Liverpool Community Independents, makes comments about women’s appearances calling some “skinny rats.” In a post from 2019, Mr Pearson refers to an individual from his new party as a “Tory lite Lib Dem rat.”

Months later, in reply to an article posted about then-Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson, Mr Pearson made an inappropriate remark about her appearance.

In an article on the Liverpool Liberal Democrats website on February 28, Mr Pearson - who declined to comment on the posts - explained why he had joined the group. He said: “I have seen the work that the Lib Dems are putting in here to hold Labour to account and it is clear that they’re the big challengers. I originally left the Labour Party because I felt that they no longer spoke for me or the city. We need a progressive alternative to Labour and in Liverpool that’s the Lib Dems.”

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Some of Mr Pearson’s posts also made physical remarks about ex-Everton football Wayne Rooney, comparing him to Shrek and using expletives. He also referred to 'fit birds', 'hottest bird' and 'dirty bitch' when referring to a series of women.

Warning the below tweets contain language some people may find offensive:

Cllr Liz Makinson, deputy leader and diversity officer of the Liverpool Liberal Democrats, said Mr Pearson’s remarks were not excusable and the group had taken immediate action when they came to light.

She said: “We’ve addressed these tweets privately with Craig, for which he’s apologised and he is undertaking some diversity training. While not excusable, many of these tweets are over 10 years old and from a time when he was a Labour Party member, but they appear to have taken no action then unlike the Liberal Democrats now. 

“The party has made it clear that this sort of conduct is unacceptable going forward. There is no place for this type of language, but also as Liberals we believe in giving people a second chance to learn from their mistakes and move on.

“Craig is not currently an approved local election candidate for the Liberal Democrats. We undertake vetting for all of our council candidates.”