Michael Fabricant: my 20-year record has been undone by a tweet about Yasmin Alibhai-Brown

I could never appear on a discussion prog with @y_alibhai I would either end up with a brain haemorrhage or by punching her in the throat

— Michael Fabricant (@Mike_Fabricant) June 20, 2014

Tony Blair, when Leader of the Opposition, berated Prime Minister John Major across the Dispatch Box: ‘The Tories are racists, misogynists, homophobes and xenophobes’ he claimed. I shouted from the backbenches ‘I’m not!’ and Blair agreed. I had already voted for greater rights for women seeking an abortion, lowering the age of homosexual consent to 16 and for improving the rights of immigrants in the UK. I was a social liberal when it was unfashionable in the Conservative Party to be so, and I am still one now.

Yet on Friday, I tweeted something that cannot be excused and something for which I am still deeply embarrassed and ashamed. I immediately apologised as soon as I realised my mistake. In just 140 characters, I appeared to have undone a 20 year voting record that demonstrated what I believe and how passionately I feel about these issues.