Cllr Stephen Speak tweeted “I’m diverting England bus to Coventry” to 376 followers from his official Twitter account.
It followed England’s 13-33 defeat to Australia in the Rugby World Cup at Twickenham yesterday, which saw them knocked out of the tournament.
Before the game was played, an eight-year-old boy and a pensioner were killed and a nine-year-old girl seriously injured after a bus hit a Sainsbury’s store in Coventry at 6pm yesterday.
Twitter users called for the West London cllr to resign from his post for the tasteless message.
Cllr Speak, Richmond Borough Council’s cabinet member for highways, later issued a grovelling apology, claiming he was not aware of the accident.
He tweeted it was “a huge error” and that he was “mortified” by his message.
David Cleaver, @dcleaver46, tweeted: “Your deleted comment was moronic – two people died in tonight’s Coventry bus crash!”
Nick, @nickcov, wrote: “Disgusting tweet re: sending the England bus to Coventry. You ought to be ashamed of yourself.”
And Danni Crowter, @ravingleftie, wrote: “Do you think this tweet was appropriate? Especially for a councillor in charge of highways.”
Cllr Speak tweeted: “Sending someone to Coventry is an expression. I am mortified that I used it given the traffic events that occurred there.
“I hadn’t heard the news at the time and send my apologies,”
His original tweet was a reply to an account called Twickenham Tweets, @twickerati.
It could have been in response to a tweet around the same time: “Oh dear. #ENGvAUS. Can someone please call a taxi for England to #CarryThemHome.”
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