Tory Stewart Jackson facing backlash after calling People's Vote supporter 'pathetic cretin'

A senior Tory is embroiled in a furious row today after branding a People’s Vote supporter a “pathetic cretin”.

Stewart Jackson has been criticised for posting the comment on a Twitter photograph of Anthony Hobley’s 11-year-old step-son draped in an EU flag in a bed at Great Ormond Street.

The youngster was recovering from an operation to reset his collarbone and before his family set off on the People’s Vote march on Saturday they stopped to visit.

Mr Hobley, 51, from Surrey, captioned the image: “My stepson had an operation yesterday @GreatOrmondSt. He’s incredibly brave but gutted he can’t be at the #PeoplesVoteMarch today with his brothers & sisters. You can see he’ll be there in spirit & his brothers are saluting him with a dab!”

Mr Jackson, who was a chief of staff to former Brexit secretary David Davis and MP for Peterborough until 2017, wrote underneath the post “What a pathetic cretin”.

Tory MP Anna Soubry today described Mr Jackson as a “bitter man” and there have been calls for him to publicly apologise.

More than 700,000 people gathered for the march to call for a second referendum on Saturday.

Mr Hobley, who is the CEO of a financial think-tank, said: “There’s far too many unpleasant Tweets of this nature. What surprised me is someone who has held such a senior position would resort to such childish name-calling.

“My Tweet was meant to make my step-son feel better and make him feel that he wasn’t being left out.”

Ms Soubry Tweeted this morning: “When any scrap of humanity is overwhelmed by ideology @BrexitStewart is a bitter man.”

Wes Streeting, the Labour MP for Ilford North and a leading supporter of the People’s Vote campaign, said: “Whatever your views on what’s gone wrong with Brexit, attacking the family of a child recovering in hospital is a new low.

“There is a vicious tone to much of our political debate today but this latest episode goes far beyond the usual rough and tumble of politics..”

Mr Jackson told HuffPost UK that his remark was “obviously” referring to the child’s stepfather, not the boy himself.

He said: “I just think politics is in a low place when Remainers use their kids in this way. Invading the child’s privacy whilst in hospital to make a political point on the People’s Vote.

“Not what most decent people would do.”