'Hateful' Katie Hopkins column on migrants causes Twitter backlash, as Russell Brand wades into debate

Katie Hopkins argued migrants should be warded off with gunships

Katie Hopkins has labelled migrants "cockroaches" (Ian Gavan| Getty Images)

Katie Hopkins is likely rubbing her hands with glee as she faces a Twitter backlash, after she wrote that “coffins” and “bodies floating in water” would not dissuade her from the idea that gunships should be used to deter migrants.

Infamous for her acid-tongued, right-wing commentary on current affairs, Hopkins has been condemned on Twitter for her latest weekly Sun column, in which addressed the migration crisis in the Mediterranean.

Her pieces comes a day after 40 people were feared to have drowned after their boat capsized off the Sicilian coast.

Labelling migrants as “feral humans” and “cockroaches” who are “spreading like norovirus”, Hopkins argued that “the vagrants making the perilous trip across the Med”, should be warded off with gunships.

“I don’t care. Show me pictures of coffins, show me bodies floating in water, play violins and show me skinny people looking sad. I don’t care,” she wrote.

Twitter users shocked by Hopkins' vitriolic piece have expressed their horror on the social media website.

Comedian-cum-activist Russell Brand was among those who slammed Hopkins for her article, and tweeted: “to write about immigrants so hatefully you cannot love yourself. Come back to humanity, you must be shattered.”

But despite the backlash, Hopkins appeared unrepentant. Alluding to her argument that she cares more about UK tax payers than migrants, she said that is something Brand's “'champagne socialist humanity' neglects”.

Earlier, she mockingly retweeted a message that read: "Lol @KTHopkins has dangled the bait and the whoppers are taking it!"