Lord Tebbit says he hopes Martin McGuinness is 'parked in a particularly hot and unpleasant corner of hell'

Former Conservative minister Norman Tebbit has branded Martin McGuinness a ‘multi-murderer and a coward’.

He said he hoped the former IRA commander is: ‘parked in a particularly hot and unpleasant corner of hell for the rest of eternity.’

Lord Tebbit’s wife Margaret was paralysed when an IRA bomb blasted through a Brighton Hotel in 1984 during a Conservative Party conference. The attack was an assassination attempt against then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her cabinet.

‘I’m just pleased that the world is a sweeter and cleaner place now. He was not only a multi-murderer, he was a coward,’ Lord Tebbit told the Press Association.

‘He knew that the IRA were defeated because British intelligence had penetrated right the way up to the Army Council and that the end was coming.

‘He then sought to save his own skin and he knew that it was likely he would be charged before long with several murders which he had personally committed and he decided that the only thing to do was to opt for peace.

‘He claimed to be a Roman Catholic. I hope that his beliefs turn out to be true and he’ll be parked in a particularly hot and unpleasant corner of hell for the rest of eternity.’

Five people were killed in the 1984 attack, and many were injured.

McGuinness, the former Northern Ireland deputy first minister, died aged 66 after a short illness.

The Sinn Fein veteran was diagnosed with a rare heart condition at the end of last year.