A Labour councillor has been slammed for using a disabled slur during a Twitter row.
Rachel Lancaster, who sits on Coventry City Council, posted a photo of one of her colleagues receiving an award at the Labour regional conference, to which @LiargateCovCity, a parody account, said: ‘Remove tongue.’
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In a now-deleted tweet, Ms Lancaster replied: ‘Been licking the window again have you?’
The term ‘window licker’ is considered to be derogatory against people with learning disabilities.
Ms Lancaster later apologised and deleted the tweet, and insists she thought it meant ‘licking the window, like a child outside a toy shop.’
But she has since deleted the apology due to the abuse she has received online, which have included calls for her resignation.
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Ms Lancaster told Metro.co.uk: ‘I had no idea the term was a slur against people with disabilities and I have apologised in full.
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‘It was not my intention to upset anyone.’
She told the Coventry Telegraph: ‘Interestingly other than on social media I have only come across four people who knew the term was derogatory, my husband who had worked with people with both physical and learning disabilities for the last 32 years had no knowledge of the term either.
‘I wonder if it’s a generational saying and is known to those only younger than me, had I known the negative association of the term I would never have used it.’
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