Church of Scotland minister who heckled Jeremy Corbyn is suspended

Rev Richard Cameron heckling Jeremy Corbyn as he visits a community centre in Glasgow(Photo: Twitter/RaynerSkyNews)

The Church of Scotland has suspended a minister over his social media use and an incident in Glasgow earlier this week which he heckled Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. 

Rev Richard Cameron, who has been minister of Scotstoun Parish Church in Glasgow since 2000, shouted at Mr Corbyn as he visited a community centre in the city earlier this week. 

"Do you think the man that's going to be prime minister of this country should be a terrorist sympathiser?" he said. 

"Who's going to be the first terrorist to be invited to the House of Commons when you're prime minister?"

Following the incident, some of Mr Cameron's tweets about gay people and Muslims came to light, triggering a Twitter storm. 

In one tweet, he described terrorism as "a problem Islam needs to deal with" and said a full face veil was "oppressive and unBritish". 

In another, he said that "the best way to defeat Islam is to preach Christ". 

In a separate post criticising homosexuality, he wrote: "Incest and homosexuality are both unnatural. Both cause harm by breaking sensibly held taboos." 

He is now being investigated by the Church of Scotland over the incident with Mr Corbyn and his social media use.

Earlier this week, a spokesperson for the Church of Scotland said: "The Church of Scotland as an organisation has a long history of engaging with politicians through a number of different channels.

"Whilst we may occasionally robustly challenge policy issues with which we disagree, we always intend to do that in a way that is polite and measured and allows for reasoned debate."

In a separate statement, the spokesperson said: "We do deplore any comments which are Islamophobic or homophobic.

"The Church of Scotland works closely with our Islamic neighbours and the General Assembly has taken a strong position and said formally that we decry homophobia in any form. "

In an update on Friday, a Church spokesperson confirmed Mr Cameron's suspension.

"In accordance with our procedures Rev Richard Cameron has been administratively suspended," the spokesperson said. 

"This is to allow us to carry out an enquiry in relation to the incident which took place earlier this week and the subsequent complaints about his social media use."