Fired Labour candidate apologises

London: The Labour candidate sacked for making offensive remarks on Twitter apologised on Friday, saying he was "young and stupid".

Stuart MacLennan, who described old people as "coffin dodgers", branded one woman a "boot" and joked about slavery, said sorry for distracting the Labour campaign.

MacLennan, who had been the candidate for Moray, said: "I am sorry to anyone I offended but I am specially sorry for having distracted from what should have been quite a good day for Labour.

"I am young and stupid but that doesn't quite cut it and that's why I'm gone."

Jim Murphy, the Scottish secretary, took the decision to fire MacLennan after details of the tweets were publisihed in the Scottish edition of the Sun yesterday.

The Scottish Labour party earlier attempted to play down the controversy by saying MacLennan was "a young candidate and has been very foolish indeed" but was forced to act as the controversy escalated.

Out on the campaign trail, Gordon Brown said: "A candidate has made a mistake. It's unacceptable. That candidate has got to resign.

"I have made it absolutely clear what my views are: we cannot have people standing as candidates for the Labour party who express these views, so that candidate will not be a candidate for the Labour."

An earlier apology by MacLennan failed to save him from the sack. MacLennan rejected criticism from other parties that Scottish Labour had been slow to react.

"The rules of the Labour party stated I have to be dismissed by the general secretary and the moment I saw the general secretary he dismissed me," he said.