CONTROVERSIAL Pendle blogger Irfan Ahmed has apologised for comments in which he appeared to criticise the families of dead soldiers.

Mr Ahmed, of Pendle LibDems, said in his political online blog: “The parents of the lost children have enjoyed the nice salaries that their children have been earning from the army.” Local Labour and Tory members called on Mr Ahmed to retract his comments and he has now made an apology.

He said: “I am sorry for making comments that might have caused problems for anyone or comments which might have led to heartache.

“The comments were out of order and I would like to apologise to everyone and anyone offended.

“The comments are not the opinion of the LibDems and neither has anything on my blog ever had anything to do with the view of the LibDems in Pendle or across the UK.

“The blog was a personal blog, which is no longer online.”