A Suffolk political leader has apologised and deleted her Twitter account after tweets about the Grenfell Tower victims prompted an angry response.

Ipswich Star: The tweet by Nadia Cenci that prompted a storm on TwitterThe tweet by Nadia Cenci that prompted a storm on Twitter (Image: Archant)

Nadia Cenci, leader of the Conservative opposition group on Ipswich council, has been active on Twitter since 2011 using the handle “An Ipswich Tory.”

However she has now left the social network after replying to another post which suggested public sympathy for the fire victims was diminishing.

Twitter user Malcolm Wood had written: “Support for Grenfell residents is fading. They have been offered money, food, clothing, housing and full support, yet they still complain.”

Ms Cenci replied: “Not forgetting that they actually came out of it alive. Afraid I feel you might be right.”

Ipswich Star: Tweet from Nadia CenciTweet from Nadia Cenci (Image: Archant)

This resulted in an angry reaction on the social media network, and there were calls for her to step down as group leader.

Ms Cenci said her Tweets were not meant to be critical of the residents of the flats, but left-wingers who she accused of “politicising” the tragedy. She said: “The anger of the victims is being stirred up by people wanting to politicise what has happened in a bid to bring down the government. That is what I was talking about. That is why I said ‘Afraid I feel you might be right.’”

She accepted her tweet could be misinterpreted: “Looking at it again, I can see it is badly worded. It is not what I meant. I was trying to say that was what people were saying because of the left politicising the tragedy.”

She later issued a statement through the council saying: “I am very sorry for any offence my recent tweets regarding Grenfell Tower have caused. This was not in any way my intention and I regret writing anything that could be interpreted as me being anything but shocked and saddened by this tragedy and the impact it has had on people in North Kensington. I have been deeply saddened by these events. I have decided to delete my entire Twitter account so that none of my tweets can cause any further offence and sincerely apologise to anyone upset or offended, particularly those directly affected by the fire.”

Ms Cenci used later tweets to explain that she was concerned about the decrease in sympathy for the victims because of the involvement of what she saw as left-wing agitators.