A Tory candidate who said people on Benefits Street should be "put down" won't be sacked.
Francesca O'Brien, who's been chosen to stand as a Conservative candidate in the marginal seat in South Wales, said her "blood was boiling" after watching the James Turner Street show in 2014.
However, Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey said it will be "for the people of Gower", not Conservative Party chiefs, to decide if Ms O'Brien becomes an MP, according to the Mirror .
Coffey told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the comments were "clearly wrong" and "not ones with which I would associate myself in any way" but added: "She has apologised I’ve been told. That is important."
Ms Coffey added: "I think that will be a decision for the people of Gower to make the choice on who they want to be their next Member of Parliament."
In the now-deleted posts, Ms O'Brien said: “Benefit Street..anyone else watching this?? Wow, these people are unreal!!!”
She then responded to a friend adding: “My blood is boiling, these people need putting down.”
In a further comment, Ms O'Brien seemed to show support for a friend's reference to "t*** a tramp Tuesday" and to "take your batts(sic) to the streets".
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The 32-year-old apologised for the “off the cuff” comments when contacted by the Guardian, which unearthed the five-year-old post.
The documentary series, filmed in Birmingham, was controversial for the way it portrayed James Turner Street residents living on benefits. It was described as "poverty porn" by some commentators.
The Channel 4 show attacted more than four million viewers when it aired in 2014 and was the subject of over 100 complaints to Ofcom.
The Gower parliamentary constituency is a marginal seat and is one the Tories will be hoping to take back from Labour after Tonia Antoniazzi took the seat from the Conservatives in 2017.
Ms Antoniazzi said she was dismayed at the comments, telling the Mirror : “Poverty, and particularly child poverty, has rocketed because of Tory austerity.
Benefits TV programmes
"It shows a jarring lack of empathy for those who maybe haven’t been afforded the luxury of growing up in a nice house, having a private education and working for the family business – there is no self-awareness."
More than 3,000 people in the Gower constituency area claim incapacity benefits and more than 2,500 receive disability living allowance.