An Angus MP has faced fresh ridicule after appearing to pass off community litter picking by an opposition councillor as her own work.
Kirstene Hair took to Twitter on Wednesday to share a picture of rubbish left strewn across Kirrie Hill car park and a video of herself in a high-vis vest.
In her post, she said it had been “great” to join local groups who “work hard to keep their communities free of litter”.
However, the MP was left red faced after Kirriemuir and Dean SNP councillor Julie Bell pointed out the image was originally shared from her account.
She then posted a picture of the group of volunteers who were actually responsible for clearing the mess, along with an image of the area following the tidy up.
Tory MP Ms Hair deleted her original tweet late on Wednesday night and later clarified the picture had been “accidentally posted as part of a montage” and was removed as soon as her staff became aware.
She said: “I was delighted to take part in the Kirriemuir clean-up – and a similar event in Letham on Sunday morning.
“As is normal practice with this type of community event, we shared images via social media. However, an image taken by another participant was accidentally posted as part of a montage on my Twitter feed.
“This was our mistake and the post was taken down as soon as my staff and I realised, within a matter of hours.”
She said the reaction had been “absurd”, adding: “I hope these antics do not discourage residents in future getting involved in these community events.
Ms Bell agreed the hard work of the volunteers should be the main focus and paid tribute to their committed efforts to clean up the local area.
She said: “It’s really sad that this silliness is detracting from the hard work of these communities volunteers that pitch up month after month and actually do loads of litter picking in between times as well.
“I’ve been involved since I got elected with the pride and place group on Angus Council and I’m just so blown away by the hard work and dedication from groups like Keep Kirrie Clean from across the whole of Angus that work so hard to keep our county looking amazing.
“That’s the important thing for me. They’re the heroes in all of this.”
