Veterans 'outraged' by Stan Collymore's controversial Falklands tweet

Former England striker Stan Collymore is facing calls to resign from his radio job after tweeting that he believed Britain had "thieved" the Falkland Islands.

The tweet, which has since been deleted, read: “Falklands? Wasn’t anyone’s. We just thieved it, as we do.

“What glory, what triumph? A f***ing island with sheep.”

TalkSport pundit Collymore has over half a million followers on Twitter and is a vocal social media presence when it comes to sport and politics.

A former Royal Navy gunner was among those offended enough by the comments to call for his resignation from the radio station.

Chris 'Kenny' Swain, 50, said: "I had a lot of friends that died in the Falklands.

"I think it's just an absolute outrage. I don't know whether he did it to raise his profile, but it's just an outrage. There are so many upset people.

"He needs to be sacked from TalkSport for a start. You can't have somebody with opinions like that addressing the public. I am just so angry.

"Everybody fought for what they believed in, whether as a young man or an officer it doesn't matter, you are following orders and you believe in what you're doing."

The official Twitter account of the Falklands Islands government said it was "very disappointed":

But Collymore himself later said his comments had been taken out of context and suggested he meant did not mean to demean the soldiers who served in the 1982 conflict:

Collymore briefly left Twitter earlier this year after receiving abusing messages.