Katie Hopkins reported to the police for race hatred by Labour MP Simon Danczuk after tweet about Pakistani men

Katie Hopkins has been reported to the police after she was accused by Labour MP for Rochdale Simon Danczuk of inciting racial hatred.

The Sun columnist appeared to equate men of Pakistani origin to child abusers in a series of posts on Twitter.

Her comments follow a lengthy argument with Danczuk on the social network about his decision to mark National Pakistan Day on 23 March in Rochdale by raising the Pakistani flag for 30 minutes.

Hopkins claimed it was wrong to raise the flag in the constituency where, in 2012, nine men were jailed for their part in a paedophile ring.  Eight of the men were of Pakistani origin.

“I don’t think we should beat about the bush here, Katie Hopkins is inciting racial hatred,” Danczuk told the Guardian.

“Rochdale has a proud history of coming together to mark special days in different cultures, from St Patrick’s Day to the Ukrainian Holodomor, and our town will not take any lessons from Katie Hopkins on community cohesion. She has waded into something she doesn’t understand and her ignorance is extremely dangerous.”

Danczuk raised the flag for less than half an hour, before posting a photograph of himself with two Pakistani men at the ceremony.

Hopkins replied with an image of eight of the men who were sentenced for sex abuse, writing: “Are these your friends too ‪@SimonDanczuk? Is this why you are raising the Pakistani flag in Rochdale? 77 years inside.”

“Your Pakistani friends saw young white girls as fair game when they abused them,” she wrote in a separate post. “Do NOT lecture me on community cohesion fool.”

“Raising a Pakistani flag in Rochdale is not helping community cohesion,” she added in another. “It is inflammatory. ‪@SimonDanczuk you & your party disgust me.”

According to Danczuk’s office, he sent a complaint to Tony Lloyd, Greater Manchester’s police commissioner, on Sunday.

Danczuk claims to have received personal threats since his disagreement with Hopkins on Twitter. A petition was started calling for the flag to be removed. An English Defence League group plans to hold a rally in the town centre on 9 May in response.

Last year, a website calling for Katie Hopkins to be arrested was set up following an inflammatory statement she allegedly made about Palestinian people on Twitter.

The site – www.arrestkatiehopkins.co.uk – claimed that she incited racial hatred when she tweeted the following to her 247,000 followers, and urges that the police investigate her comments under the Communications Act 2003 Section 127, which covers offensive and threatening messages sent over a “public” electronic communications network.

“Palestinians busy knifing Israelis,” she wrote. “2 state solution my arse. Filthy rodents burrowing beneath Israel. Time to restart the bombing campaign.

“Arab terrorists fired rockets from schools and hospitals. They brought down Israeli fire on to their own people. See behind the pictures.”

Hopkins is yet to respond to request for comment.