Katie Hopkins to join Mail Online after contract with The Sun ends

A source at the paper said Hopkin’s final Sun column will be on Friday

Katie Hopkins (Getty)

Katie Hopkins is leaving The Sun to join the Mail Online as a columnist.

Hopkins said she was “delighted” to be joining the site as she announced the news in a statement on Thursday, a few weeks after she faced a growing backlash over a dehumanising comment piece about refugees.

A source said her contract was “allowed to lapse” and her final piece will appear in the paper on Friday.

However, a source close to Hopkins told The Independent she submitted her last column this morning and then resigned from the paper. She will officially start at the Mail Online on 1 November.

The acerbic TV personality had a number of controversial columns published in The Sun, including an infamous piece comparing refugees to cockroaches that led to Hopkins being investigated by police for allegedly indicating racial hatred. Other comments that have provoked fury outside her columns have centred around mental health, obesity, feminism and autism.

The piece sparked further anger as the public was moved by the images emerging from the humanitarian crisis in recent weeks, including the harrowing image of the Syrian toddler Aylan Kurdi. Hopkins has faced increasing demands to apologise but remained defiant and vowed she would not be silenced after the furore broke out.

The Sun has so far resisted calls to remove the piece from its website.

Confirming her appointment, a representative for the MailOnline said: “At MailOnline we operate without fear or favour and this is something that Katie is known the world over for.

“Katie’s column is a must read for people across Britain and around the globe. Even if you don’t agree with what she says, she certainly knows how to engage and entertain an audience.”