Katie Hopkins has been accused of stepping up her campaign against Ed Miliband by making a Holocaust “joke” about his wife Justine.
The Sun columnist last week drew lines in the sand by vowing to leave the UK if the Labour leader, whose parents were refugees from the Holocaust, wins the General Election.
And on Friday she ramped up her rhetoric by tweeting: “Pollsters say Justine is the least popular of party wives. He might stick her head in the oven and turn on the gas.”
Katie Hopkins has been accused of making an anti-Semitic joke about Ed Miliband and his wife
The Holocaust saw the mass murder of six millions Jews and millions of other people leading up to and during the Second World War. Large scale gas ovens were used for some of the mass killings.
Hopkins was warned: “You may have gone too far this time,” with another cautioning: “I seriously hope that wasn’t a joke aimed at Jewish people.”
David Price tweeted: “Sun columnist tells Holocaust family member to gas his wife. Either very stupid or extremely offensive. Care to tell us which?”
Michael N Leissner responded by telling Hopkins: “Pity we are not in Germany. You would be in prison for [a] hate crime and ridiculing the Holocaust", while another replied to say they had submitted a complaint to her employers.
Miliband, who was named the 20th most influential Jew in the world in 2013, is married to Justine, who is not Jewish.
Gillian Walnes, executive director of Holocaust-education group the Anne Frank Trust UK told the Jewish Chronicle: "[Ms Hopkins] is a simple-minded, publicity-craving woman who speaks before she thinks.
"Even taking out the Holocaust references and the Miliband family connection to the Holocaust, why does this woman need to be quite so personally offensive and abusive?"
Ed Miliband and his wife Justine
Both Miliband's parents came to Britain as refugees from the Holocaust and his father, the Marxist historian Ralph Miliband, kept a strictly secular household.
Following criticism for her remarks, Hopkins later tweeted: "Look peeps, Jews and Gays love me. Get over it. The Scots and Palestinians aren't so keen. I give you that."