Ant Middleton has addressed a deleted tweet in which he used the word “scum” in reference to Black Lives Matter protesters.
On Saturday, the former soldier – known for appearing on Channel 4′s SAS: Who Dares Wins – tweeted that both those protesting against racism and the far-right group EDL “aren’t welcome on our streets”.
The tweet, which was published by the Mirror, 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.”
His comments came after a day of violent clashes between far-right protesters and police in central London.
Ant has now shared a video on his Twitter account apologising “if my tweet came across as offensive”.
In a message accompanying his video, he wrote: “In relation to a tweet I took down over the weekend. I took it down immediately but I wanted to make sure I’ve been clear and upfront about why I took it down.”
He then said: “I’d just like to clarify a tweet I put out this weekend and deleted straight away, once I re-read and realised it could cause offence.
“I put out a tweet, retweeted a video of the violence, the terror, the chaos that was happening on the streets of London and within that tweet I mentioned the BLM and the EDL and the word ‘scum’.”
“At no point was I calling the BLM scum and comparing [the] two organisations,” he continued. “I want to make that really clear.
“The word scum was used to describe the people in video that were violent, that were causing terror on the streets of London, and setting a bad example for our future generation.”
He added: “For those of you who know me, I’m a people’s person, I love people, I’m anti-racist and I’m anti-violence, having lived and 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 for positive change.”
A Channel 4 spokesperson later told Metro: “Channel 4 has a clear commitment to being an anti-racist organisation. Comments made by Ant Middleton on his social media accounts are entirely his own and in no way represent the views of Channel 4. We have spoken to him and he has apologised.”
Ant recently faced a social media backlash after claiming he was “not bothered” about the Covid-19 outbreak, instructing everyone to “calm the fuck down”.
He later backtracked on his remarks, claiming he’d “made a mistake” and that he’d been “a bit insensitive towards the magnitude, the scale, of the crisis”.
