Right-wing media personality Katie Hopkins dumped, deported over ‘reckless’ Covid stunt
Controversial far-right British media personality Katie Hopkins has been booted from Australia after boasting about flouting the rules inside hotel quarantine.
Controversial British TV personality Katie Hopkins has been deported to the UK after he visa was cancelled for flouting Australia’s hotel quarantine rules.
Hopkins departed Sydney airport on Monday afternoon as NSW Police confirmed the 46-year-old was issue a $1000 for not wearing a mask on Sunday - a breach of the state’s public health orders.
Earlier, Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews told ABC News Breakfast Hopkins’s visa had been cancelled and she would be leaving Australia “as soon as we can arrange that.”
“I am hoping that will happen imminently,” she said.
“I’m concerned that we remove her, or that she leaves the country as soon as it is possible for her to be on a plane out of here. That is my primary focus,” Ms Andrews said.
“I don’t think that she is a person, based on her quarantine behavior, that is in line with who we want in this country, so she needs to leave, and she will be leaving.”
Speaking with Sky News, Ms Andrews said of Hopkins: “Good riddance.”
She added Hopkins would “hopefully (be) out of the country as the day rolls on.”
Hopkins, who was due to join the cast of Big Brother VIP in August, claimed in a live video to Instagram followers that Covid lockdowns were “the greatest hoax in human history” and admitted to breaking quarantine rules by taunting hotel staff and opening her door naked and without a face mask when her food was being delivered.
In a statement on Sunday afternoon, Channel 7 confirmed that the right-wing personality would no longer be taking part in Big Brother VIP, saying the network “strongly condemn her irresponsible and reckless comments in hotel quarantine”.
While Ms Andrews ordered an urgent review into whether Hopkins had breached her visa conditions, the decision by Seven to cancel her contract meant she was no longer allowed to be in the country, and would be deported once a flight could be arranged.
The network’s decision to terminate Hopkins’ contract comes just hours after Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews ordered an urgent review of Hopkins’ alleged public health breach, and whether she had broken her visa conditions.
Ms Andrews warned Hopkins could be deported for deliberately flouting hotel quarantine rules.
She told her Instagram followers on Saturday she was trying to taunt quarantine staff by rushing to answer her door naked without a face mask, when workers delivered her food.
Ms Andrews condemned the behaviour, and revealed Hopkins was the subject of a Border Force investigation.
“It is despicable that anyone would behave in such a way that puts our health officials and community at risk,” she said.
“Yesterday I directed Australian Border Force to immediately consider the facts of this matter and urgently review whether this individual is complying with the requirements of her visa.
“Border Force have been responding to that overnight, and continue to do so today.”
Hopkins told followers she had been “lying in wait” in the bathroom naked, sprinting to the door to “frighten the s . . t out of them, and do it naked with no face mask”.
Quarantine rules require her to wear a mask and wait 30 seconds before opening the door for food deliveries.
Her behaviour has incensed many, with more than 10,000 signing a petition to send the celebrity back home.
Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce blasted the far-right newspaper columnist, warning he was a strident supporter of the nation’s quarantine system.
“I’m the one who wanted to send home Johnny Depp’s dogs so I have no problem sending home someone who wants to flout our laws,” Mr Joyce told ABC Insiders host David Speers. “If you want to do that, pack your bongo and get out of (the) country.”
In 2015, Mr Joyce warned that Depp’s dogs, Pistol and Boo, faced being put down after they were smuggled illegally into the country on the star’s private jet.
Ms Andrews said Big Brother received an exemption to bring in offshore contestants with the support of the Berejiklian state government.
“The NSW government approved quarantine for Big Brother contestants above the quarantine cap,” she said.
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