Furious Eastwood: Strike hateful Tyson off shortlist and exile Trump

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood has weighed in on the debate over whether or not Irish world super heavyweight boxing champion, Tyson Fury, should be struck off the BBC Sports Personality of the Year shortlist.

By Staff Reporter

Published 9th Dec 2015, 12:00 BST

Asked on state radio whether the Manchester-born boxer, who recently inflicted only the fourth career defeat on Wladimir Klitschko, should be isolated due to controversial comments he has made about homosexuality, women, abortion and paedophilia, Mr Eastwood replied: “I think he should.”

He went on to say that Mr Fury’s comments bordered on hate speech.

Mr Eastwood said that a worthy BBC Sports Personality Award Winner should not just be an excellent athlete but they should also be a role model.

The awards ceremony is due to take place in Belfast later this month.

Previous winners of the award can be viewed here.Separately, Mr Eastwood has also criticised United States Presidential hopeful Donald Trump over comments he made recently about Muslims.

The SDLP leader tweeted that he hopes Mr Trump’s exiled from the United States.