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Leo Varadkar thought 'typical Indian' tweet was parody

BBC/Getty Images Lord Kilclooney and Leo VaradkarBBC/Getty Images
Leo Varadkar (right) said he thought the tweet from Lord Kilclooney's account was from a parody account

Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar has said he thought a tweet by a House of Lords peer calling him a "typical Indian" was from a parody account.

Former senior Ulster Unionist Lord Kilclooney posted the tweet on Monday night.

It has been criticised as "racist" and "embarrassing".

Lord Kilclooney has told BBC News NI he rejected "false accusations of racism" and said he would not withdraw the tweet.

Twitter Screengrab of Lord Kilclooney's 'typical Indian' tweetTwitter

It is the second time Lord Kilclooney has been accused of racism over a tweet about Mr Varadkar.

Last November, a tweet in which Lord Kilclooney referred to the Irish prime minister as "the Indian" was described as racist.

He later withdrew the tweet. A complaint to the House of Lords standards commissioner was dismissed.

Referring to the latest tweet, Mr Varadkar confirmed to the Dáil (Irish parliament) he had seen the tweet.

"I actually had thought that was a parody account but seemingly it's not - it actually is for real. And that's all I'll say about that," he said.

Lord Kilclooney posted the tweet in response to a news story in which Mr Varadkar was accused of "poor manners" over his visit to Northern Ireland on Monday.

The tweet was widely criticised with the former Ulster Unionist Party leader Mike Nesbitt saying he could only interpret it as a "racist comment" while Alliance Party leader Naomi Long said it was a "slur on all Indian people over his use of the word typical".

'Most provocative'

There have been calls for the tweet to be reported to the speaker of the House of Lords while Labour Party MP Virendra Sharma, the chair of Westminster's Indo-British All-Party Parliamentary Group, said the comments were "offensive and completely misplaced".

Irish senator Niall Ó Donnghaile, of Sinn Fein, said he would ask the speaker of the Irish senate to contact the speaker of the House of Lords "urging him to take appropriate action regarding yet another offensive tweet from a member of the House of Lords regarding An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar".

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When contacted by the BBC, Lord Kilclooney defended the comment and said that Mr Varadkar had been "most provocative" over the course of the Brexit negotiations and had "misunderstood the views of many unionists".

He added that Mr Varadkar had a "dismal lack of knowledge" about Northern Ireland affairs.

Lord Kilclooney also tweeted that "it is not racially abusive as he himself has confirmed he is half Indian" but that Mr Varadkar "has damaged North/South relations by being continually offensive and provocative to the Unionist majority in NIreland".

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Mr Varadkar was born in the Republic. His father is Indian and his mother is Irish.

He became taoiseach (Irish prime minster) in June 2017.

Lord Kilclooney was previously criticised for a tweet in August when he claimed that unionists and nationalists were not political equals.