Lichfield’s MP has said members of a local group for people with learning disabilities should not be upset by a post he made on social media.
Michael Fabricant had been criticised after using the term “remonger” in one of his posts.
The Friends 2 Friends group said they were “upset and dismayed” by the use of the term and called for an apology.
In a reply on social media, the Conservative MP said the word did not mean what the group thought it did.
“You shouldn’t be upset – the phrase coined by someone else was about ‘remainers’ scaremongering (not unusual) as was very clear from their tweet.
“My own sister had severe learning difficulties so I understand the issues personally let alone professionally.”
Michael Fabricant MP
Among those to respond to the MP was comedian and writer Danny Wallace, who said the explanation wasn’t sufficient.
“For that to work it would be ‘remainmongering’, like fishmongering.
If you’d said ‘remaingering’ the shortening almost works, but that’s not what you did.”
Danny Wallace
