Adolf Hitler
Adolf HitlerRoni Schutzer/Flash90

A UK member of parliament for the Scottish National Party was widely denounced after a writing a comment on social media implying that the British government was comparable to the Nazis.

Peter Grant, the member for Glenrothes and Central Fife, wrote that the Nazis only showed their “true colors” after they were in power for “several years,” reported the Jewish Chronicle.

After generating outrage with his statement, Grant has since removed the tweet and apologized.

He made the comment in reply to journalist Andrew Neil who was writing about how often the term “fascism” is unjustly used to describe modern governments and policies.

Neil’s Twitter post contained information from the official Auschwitz Museum account along with the statement, “As accusations of fascism are bandied about today like confetti by the ignorant, ludicrously devaluing the word of any meaning, a reminder of what real fascism can do. And of its unconscionable evil.”

Grant replied, “Murdering babies wasn’t on the Nazi manifesto. Not until they’d been in power several years and had stoked up fear and hatred against innocent citizens. Then, only then, did they show their true colours.”

In response to Grant, Chronicle columnist Daniel Finkelstein wrote, “This offensive tweet doesn’t even have the merit of being true. Hitler and the Nazis were already talking openly of the need to kill babies in 1929. Would you consider deleting this tweet Mr Grant? We all make mistakes (I know I do) and you can fix this one.”

The president of the Board of Deputies, Marie van der Zyl, also issued a statement: “We are disturbed by the suggestion from some MPs that Nazism only gradually revealed its true aims.”

“In reality, Hitler was always open about his aims – in 1925, well before the Nazis came to power, he had already written in Mein Kampf about the need to ‘exterminate… the international poisoners of our people’ and how thousands of Jews should have been ‘subjected to poison gas.’”

Van der Zyl added, “The overwhelming majority of comparisons to the Nazis are extremely inappropriate, and we would urge people – particularly parliamentarians – to choose their words with far more care.”

Hours later, Grant deleted his tweeted.

He wrote, “I want to apologize unreservedly for a highly insensitive tweet I posted… While I strongly believe we must always be vigilant to the seeds of racism, antisemitism and fascism, I deeply regret how I made that point and I have deleted the tweet.”

(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)