A TORY candidate branded "heartless" over comments he made about people using food banks has been suspended from the party.

Craig Ross drew condemnation for remarks he made in a podcast, claiming that people using food banks were more at risk of diabetes than starvation. 

After the comments were first reported in the Daily Record, the Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf slammed his rival - who was gunning for his Glasgow Pollok seat - calling him "heartless" and his comments about the aftermath of Stephen Lawrence's racially-motivated murder "deplorable".

READ MORE: Contact tracing underway after Covid cases linked to police HQ in Govan

Now Tory chiefs have suspended the former lecturer over the "unacceptable comments" and pledged to investigate the matter.

A spokesman said: "We have suspended this candidate and an investigation is underway. These unacceptable comments do not reflect the views of the party."

Mr Ross said in his podcast: "I’m not saying that every single person who claims to be really hungry and is reliant on charity is also very overweight, but what I am saying is if Channel 4 News is having a reasonable go at showing the reality of food bank usage, then we know that the people that they film are far from starving.

“If anything, their biggest risk is not starvation, it’s diabetes." 

We told previously how the former lecturer was pilloried on social media for boasting of how many pull-ups he could do in a bizarre jibe against the nationalists. 

READ MORE: Tory MSP hopeful does 18 pull-ups ‘because SNP take responsibility for nothing’

Mr Yousaf further blasted Mr Ross' comments regarding the findings of a report into the Metropolitan Police into the murder of Stephen Lawrence, which found the force to be "institutionally racist". 

READ MORE: Ambulance service 'sorry' after pensioner and pregnant woman using soup kitchen wait over an hour for 999 help

Mr Ross said: "I remember my pal, the Metropolitan police officer, and his mates, and their reaction to that.

“How nauseated they were, how utterly sickened they were, to be told that there was something called institutional racism and that they worked in the institution and therefore they by implication were racists."

The Justice Secretary said to deny institutional racism in the context of the 18-year-old Londoner's killing was "deplorable".