Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood is facing a backlash for branding the Barcelona terror attack ‘far right’.
The Welsh assembly member sparked anger by tweeting about the apparent ISIS-inspired atrocity last night.
Posting a report of the deadly attack, Ms Wood asked: ‘Terrible. Is this more far right terrorism?’
The comments drew claims that Ms Wood was politicising the episode, while others complained that she was unwilling to condemn Islamist terrorism explicitly – arguing that ISIS ideology was in fact far left.
But Ms Wood was unrepentant, insisting that ISIS ‘is far right’.
Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood is facing a backlash after branding the Barcelona attack ‘far right terrorism’
Ms Wood was criticised for politicising the atrocity amid claims she was unwilling to blame Islamists for terrorism
When the Welsh AM was asked by other users why she was not blaming ISIS, she insisted that ISIS was far right
Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies condemned the tweet, which appeared to be referring to white supremacist violence in Virginia last week, as ‘unacceptable’.
Fellow Tory assembly member Janet Finch-Saunders said the remarks were ‘at best poorly timed and ill-judged, at worst cynical and morally depraved’.
‘Politicising terror so fresh after an attack can never be acceptable, and only adds to the hysteria and toxicity of debate,’ she said.
‘As leader of a so-called progressive party, she should show some contrition by issuing an immediate apology and, if she doesn’t, I think she should resign.’
In a message on her Facebook page she wrote: ‘I am staggered by the reaction to the point that Isis and white supremacism both have far right ideologies driving them.
‘Both see their group as superior to others. Both see people who are not in their group fair targets for abuse, violence and even death.
‘Both hate minorities and consider women to be less than men. Both believe in using extreme violence to repress people with different views. This is far right/ fascism ideology. How can it not be?’
After a wave of criticism, Ms Wood posted a full reaction on Facebook saying ‘western racists’ were upset because they were being linked to ISIS
Ms Wood said the anger was because she was linking ‘western racists and white supremacists to their number one hate target and shows them as no better than each other’.
Speaking from her country residence Chequers today, the Prime Minister condemned ‘evil terrorism’.
‘The UK stands shoulder to shoulder with Spain in confronting and dealing with the evil of terrorism, and I have offered any assistance we can provide,’ she said.
‘Sadly I must tell you that we do believe that a number of British nationals were caught up in the attack and we are urgently looking into reports of a child believed missing, who is a British dual national.’
Lord Carlile of Berriew, a former adviser to the government on terror laws, called for tougher checks on vehicles after Barcelona became the latest European city hit by the terrorist tactic.
The peer, who was Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation from 2001 to 2011, warned it is ‘all too easy for terrorist events using vehicles to occur’.
Ms Wood insisted that ISIS and white supremacists were driven by the same basic ideology
After Ms Wood said she was ‘staggered’ by the reaction to her post, Welsh Conservative leader said her words were ‘unacceptable’
The Barcelona attack is thought to have been ISIS-inspired, and saw terrorists ram a van into pedestrians on a crowded street
In Virginia last weekend violence broke out as a car was driven at protesters against a white supremacists march, killing one woman