A SENIOR councillor has publicly apologised after celebrating the death of Margaret Thatcher on Twitter.

Tina Bourne, who is the Labour cabinet member for housing at Colchester Borough Council, posted a photo of a bottle of champagne and wrote a Tweet saying: “Chin chin everyone” after news of Mrs Thatcher’s death was announced.

The message prompted strong reaction on the social networking site from one follower who described the Tweet as “monumentally crass”, to which she responded: “Yes in her time Thatcher passed some monumentally crass policies”.

But Mrs Bourne, who is also deputy head teacher at St John’s Green Primary School, then sent a further Tweet which said: “You are right, it was a crass insensitive thing to tweet, and I should know better. With sincere apologies.”

Speaking afterwards to the East Anglian Daily Times, Mrs Bourne said she got caught up in the moment and would not repeat the same mistake again.

“It was a crass and insensitive thing to do for which I sincerely apologise.”

She added: “I have kept the Tweet where it is because otherwise it shows I have something to hide.”