Katie Hopkins: Former LBC broadcaster’s most controversial moments

Professional controversialist once denounced by the UN has rarely been far from the headlines

(LBC)

Katie Hopkins has never been far from the headlines - with her talent for causing outrage keeping her firmly in the public eye.

Here are some of her most controversial moments:

In 2015, she provoked fury by comparing refugees to cockroaches.

“Make no mistake, these migrants are like cockroaches. They might look a bit 'Bob Geldof's Ethiopia circa 1984', but they are built to survive a nuclear bomb. They are survivors,” she wrote in a Sun column.

In her article, she suggested gunships should be used to stop people crossing the Mediterranean.

Her words drew the wrath of the UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Press regulator Ipso rejected complaints that the column was discriminatory, on the grounds that it did not refer to a specific individual.

In the same year, she wrote that then Labour leader Ed Miliband, who has often spoken about his parents' flight from Nazi persecution, could “gas” his wife Justine.

She tweeted her followers: “Pollsters say Justine is the least popular of the party wives.

“He might stick her head in the oven and turn on the gas.”

The tweet provoked outrage, with Hopkins described as “the epitome of vile,” and “disgusting”.

The former Apprentice star denied the tweet was anti-Semitic, saying it was a reference to the couple's two kitchens.

At Ukip's party conference in 2015, Hopkins said that the photograph of a dead Syrian boy lying on a beach that sparked a wave of compassion across Europe was staged.

The former Celebrity Big Brother contestant provoked outrage from charities when she said that dementia sufferers should not be blocking beds.

“Dementia sufferers should not be blocking beds. What is the point of life when you no longer know you are living it?,” she wrote on Twitter in 2015.

“Bang me over the head.”

George McNamara, head of policy and public affairs at Alzheimer's Society, said: “These disgraceful remarks only serve to reinforce the stigma that sadly prevents many people with dementia from feeling like valued members of society.”

He added: “The 850,000 people living with dementia in the UK deserve far more than to be used as bait by people stoking controversy.”

In 2014, she tweeted: “Sending us Ebola bombs in the form of sweaty Glaswegians just isn't cricket.”

She wrote: “Glaswegian ebola patient moved to London's Royal Free Hospital. Not so independent when it matters most are we jocksville?”

Her comments were reported to police.

Hopkins has also turned on mothers who breastfeed in public, writing in Closer magazine: “I loathe all breastfeeders and the Mammary Mafia. And I can't stand this 'full-time Mummy thing' - you're just unemployed.”

And she tweeted: “Women have the right to breast feed. But they don't have the right to put everyone else off having milk in their tea. Put it away girls.”

Last year, an article by Hopkins resulted in a £150,000 libel damages payout for her publisher.

In a 2015 column for MailOnline, the TV and radio personality wrongly suggested two brothers were extremists with links to al-Qaeda.

In March, Hopkins was ordered by a High Court judge to pay £24,000 damages to writer Jack Monroe at the conclusion of a case dubbed “Twibel” by media pundits.

She later failed to win permission to appeal over the libel action which landed her with a six-figure bill.

Copyright Press Association