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Emmerdale’s James Moore hits out at Katie Hopkins for disability shaming

She tweeted about wheelchair users

Emmerdale’s James Moore has blasted Katie Hopkins after she tweeted about wheelchair users at an airport.

The outspoken personality sent the tweet to her 925K followers reading: “Stood at the airline gate in Dallas – watching miracles happen.

Katie Hopkins spotted leaving BBC Radio Building, Gildea Street, London UK, 17 August 2016 Pictured: Katie Hopkins Ref: SPL1336242 170816 NON-EXCLUSIVE Picture by: SplashNews.com Splash News and Pictures Los Angeles: 310-821-2666 New York: 212-619-2666 London: 0207 644 7656 Milan: 02 4399 8577 photodesk@splashnews.com World Rights
Katie’s tweet has upset James (Credit: SplashNews.com)

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“Hundreds – formerly bound to wheelchairs – suddenly gaining the ability to walk.

“Praise be. The Miracle of the Why Walk When There’s a Wheelchair to Skip the Lines.”

James, who has ataxic cerebral palsy, saw the tweet and responded.

Ent Daily has contacted Katie’s rep for comment.

James often speaks out about disabled issues. Recently he responded to the news that actress Perry Mattfield was cast as a blind woman who is the only witness to her friend’s murder in CW’s upcoming drama In The Dark.

Taking to Twitter to voice his opinion on the matter, James said: “Yet another show casting a non disabled actor in a disabled role.

“At the end of the day- the product will suffer. The best actor to play a disabled part will always be disabled themselves. The difference is in life experience. No matter the character.”

His comments come after the show’s bosses claimed they “immediately” searched for a blind actress for the role, before deciding to cast Perry “because she was the best actor for the role”.

Soap star James – who won the National Television Award for Best Newcomer earlier this year – has previously opened up about the challenges of life as a disabled actor, and said while the situation is improving, there is still a lot of work to be done.

He said to the Sun Online at the time: “Honestly, it’s enough to win an NTA anyway and to have the public behind it. But I think this means that we’re doing great things for people with disabilities.

“We’re getting more diverse in society and more open and more accommodating.

“However, we still need more disabled voices because I don’t think that there are enough in public at the moment.”

James won the National Television Award for Best Newcomer this year (Credit: ITV)

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He also urged fans not to “feel sorry” for him because of his disability.

He explained: “Please don’t feel sorry for me. I’m not struggling, I haven’t had a hard life especially not for the past few years.

“I’m happy. Having a disability doesn’t mean we’re unhappy, or we need sympathy. (sic)”

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Carena Crawford
Associate Editor (Soaps)

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