King Charles heckler Lidia Thorpe faces calls to resign over 'genocide' outburst

A politician is facing calls to resign after she heckled King Charles at Australia's Parliament House. The monarch was giving a speech when Lidia Thorpe interrupted him.

Ms Thorpe, the first Aboriginal senator for the state of Victoria and who frequently campaigns on First Nation issues, said "you are not my King" and accused him of committing "genocide" against the country's indigenous people. She was escorted from the chamber on Monday during the second full day of engagements for King Charles and Queen Camilla.

Later, Ms Thorpe reposted a cartoon online showing the King beheaded. She sits as an independent in the upper house of the Australian parliament and some monarchists have urged her to resign as they vowed to do all things "necessary" to kick her out of Parliament, Express reports.

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Philip Benwell, National Chairman of the Australian Monarchist League, said Ms Thorpe's actions were "disgusting" and "disgraceful". He said the association was "investigating legal avenues" in order to have her removed from Parliament.

He said: "I was standing close to Lidia Thorpe and watched her every move. She is a person who openly declared, on taking her place in the Senate, that she would be faithful and bear true allegiance to the monarch.

"That she did so to be able to sit in the Senate is beside the point. The fact is that, for whatever reason, she declared her allegiance to King Charles and yet she has now screamed to the King in person 'you are not my King.'

"She also shouted other things on being escorted out of the Great Hall, which included swear words and worse. This person should resign from the Senate immediately as she has no place in a democratic chamber which values discourse and decisions but not insults and possible threats."

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