NewsNational News

Actions

Australia deports commentator Hopkins for quarantine boast

Virus Outbreak Australia
Posted
and last updated

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Far-right British commentator Katie Hopkins has been deported from Australia after boasting on social media that she planned to breach quarantine rules.

Hopkins traveled to Australia to appear in a reality television program and was in 14-day mandatory hotel quarantine in Sydney before filming was to start.

According to the Associated Press, Hopkins left Australia on a flight from Sydney on Monday.

Hopkins has caused outrage for her anti-Muslim and anti-immigration comments. She's even described pandemic lockdowns as the “greatest hoax in human history," the AP reported.

Then-President Donald Trump often retweeted her before she was permanently banned by Twitter in June 2020 for breaching the platform’s hateful conduct policy.

According to the AP, Hopkins said in a now-deleted Instagram video that she planned to frighten hotel staff who was bringing her meals to her door by confronting them naked and without a mask.

Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews said Hopkins would be deported after boasting on Instagram her intention to flout quarantine rules.

The network and production company behind "Big Brother VIP" said her contract to appear in the program has been canceled.

Australia's two largest cities, Sydney and Melbourne, are under lockdown to contain a coronavirus outbreak caused by the more contagious delta variant.