A columnist who left a daily newspaper over an “offensive” tweet has hit out at its publisher – claiming he was “stitched up”.

Iain MacWhirter, who left Glasgow-based daily The Herald last month following a 22-year association, has accused Newsquest of being “pusillanimous” in deciding to end his column and claimed it was only done to appease “the gods of social media”.

Iain, pictured, was suspended by The Herald in September after he described ethnic minority MPs promoted by then-Prime Minister Liz Truss as “the coconut cabinet” in a Twitter thread about the fact that none of the great offices of state were held by white men.

He apologised for the use of the derogatory term, which implies that people of colour are white on the inside, and a subsequent investigation concluded there was no “racist intent” in what he wrote.

Now, in a column for The Spectator, Iain has offered his side of the story following his departure by mutual agreement last month.

He wrote: “I always advise younger journalists never to use irony or make jokes on social media, so when I was effectively sacked for alluding to an edible fruit of the palm family, I should have known better. And of course I did know better.

“I deleted my three-word tweet within minutes. But screenshots live for ever. There are no second thoughts on Twitter, no clarifications allowed. No second chances either.

“It is judge and jury and will take away your career, reputation and livelihood at the click of a mouse, if pusillanimous employers allow it to.”

He went on: “I’d been in countless Twitter storms in the past over Scottish nationalism, hate crime, gender. It’s what Twitter does.

“So when the editor of the Scottish Herald, for which I had been a columnist for more than 20 years, rang to tell me I was suspended, I thought he was joking. He wasn’t. The order had come from ‘upstairs’. I was out.”

“Irony isn’t the only thing that suffers if everything is taken literally. Debate becomes impossible. It was futile to point this out in my case. There was ‘reputational’ damage to Newsquest, the parent company of the Herald group. They are committed to ‘Diversity Inclusion Equality’.

“I was suspended for a week before my fate was eventually decided. The Herald stated (on Twitter, naturally) that there had been no ‘racist intent’ on my part. That I have written ‘sensitively on racial matters’ for more than 20 years. They knew I’d been stitched up. But the gods of social media had to be appeased.”

Iain added: “The Herald isn’t the only publication that lives in fear of social media. The journalists who are addicted to Twitter are part of the problem.

“Free speech and independent journalism are finished if we submit to the caprice of doctrinaire online zealots. Newspapers are, to use another no doubt unacceptable metaphor, cutting their own throats.”

HTFP has approached Newsquest for a response to Iain’s Spectator column.

The Herald previously set out its own reasons for his departure in a statement published on its official Twitter account.

It read: “After concluding our investigation, we are satisfied that there was no racist intent in what was still an offensive and unacceptable tweet by our freelance contributor Iain Macwhirter.

“Iain has been an exceptional long-serving political commentator for The Herald over 22 years, regularly shaping and leading the news agenda in Scotland through authoritative and insightful comment and analysis.

“He has written thoughtfully on race and other sensitive issues over the decades he has been with us, and these pieces have always met our editorial standards and have been well received by our readers.

“After holding discussions, we have mutually agreed that Iain will leave The Herald to pursue other opportunities, and his final column will appear in this weekend’s Herald on Sunday. He goes with our best wishes, and we want to put down our sincere thanks to him for the body of work he has achieved with the newspaper.”