Crystal Palace defender Patrick van Aanholt says he is "very satisfied" that Katie Hopkins has been suspended from Twitter, after the footballer was involved in a series of social media spats with the right-wing provocateur.
Hopkins, a former columnist for The Sun and Mail Online, was permanently banned from Twitter last month due to "hateful conduct", having previously caused outrage on a regular basis for her offensive comments on a range of subjects.
Shortly before being banned, she criticised Manchester United forward Marcus Rashford for his campaign to provide free school meals for children during the summer holidays, claiming this was promoting laziness among parents - at which point Van Aanholt intervened.
The Netherlands international told Hopkins that Rashford "had done more in 24 hours than you have in your entire life. Bow before a king", before asking his followers who the former Apprentice contestant is.
Hopkins replied: "I am a white Christian conservative. You may kneel and kiss my ring," to which van Aanholt responded: "I am Dutch black, I am also Christian (not that colour or religion has anything to do with it). As for your ring you are welcome to come to Selhurst and kiss my big toe. I'll wait."
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Speaking to beIN SPORTS, van Aanholt said of his exchange with Hopkins: "I think I’m very satisfied, not just me, but everyone on Twitter because it’s 2020 and people are still getting racist abuse, where does this come from? It’s just crazy. So that’s why I called her out.
"Obviously, at first I didn’t know who she was, and I called my agent and I was like, ‘who is Katie Hopkins?’. So I sat down with my agent and talked to him about it, I said, ‘listen, I’m going to reply to her because I’m not having this’. He was like, ‘are you sure?’, and I was like, ‘yeah’, so we did it.
"She got banned and blocked on Twitter, so I’m happy with that. I’ve done everyone a favour by calling her out and replying to her and getting her shut down.
"I think everybody agreed with him [Rashford] on this one. I think what he did was right and what she did was wrong, so that’s why I called her out and she finally got blocked on Twitter.
"I think we all stick together and that’s what we did. Everybody liked Marcus for what he did and everybody responded to that, so I think we all came together and it’s a good thing, we all made a statement."
