Edinburgh Council leader apologises to Lidl staff over Twitter outburst

The leader of Edinburgh City Council has apologised after he referred to Lidl as t**** in an angry outburst on Twitter.

Labour’s Cammy Day admitted he used the “wrong wording” in the tweet sent on Sunday morning, in which he ranted about the supermarket’s alarm giving local residents a “7.40am wake up call.”

‘Thank you to @LidlGB #t**** for being a pain in the a**’, the council leader wrote in the since-deleted tweet.

He added: “Alarm goes off regularly and nothing done about it.”

Speaking to Edinburgh Live, Councillor Day said it was “the third time in a week that this has happened.”

“It happens at midnight and early in the morning, I have reported it to the police and the council and got no response.

“I emailed Lidl last week and got no response, now I have tweeted I have received a response so maybe now people who live around Easter Road won’t be woken up by an alarm.”

The SNP’s Marco Biago challenged Mr Day on the matter at a full council meeting on Thursday, saying his actions “reflect on this institution and every member of this council”.

Pointing out that Lidl’s social media team had apologied in a reply to the tweet, Councillor Biagi asked: “Would he also place on record his apology to the staff of Easter Road Lidl for the term he used to describe them?”

The council leader, who took up the top job last month, said he “was expecting” the question, adding: “The issue about my Tweet, I accept it was the wrong wording for me to put out publicly in my new role, I accept that and have apologied and I’ve had discussions with Lidl and the matter is now closed.”

Lidl was contacted for comment.