The controversial writer took to Twitter on Sunday, tweeting:
‘Life expectancy in Scotland based 07/08 birth is 59.5. Goodness me. That lot will do anything to avoid working until retirement.’
The tweet came just a day after a helicopter crashed into a pub in a central Glasgow, killing 9 people and injuring 32 more.
The mother-of-three’s tweet received a massive backlash, with several Facebook groups protesting against her, and a Change.org petition garnering tens of thousands of signatures.
The petition read: ‘On the 30th of November 2013, Scotland was still in shock and trying to come to terms with a horrible crash that took the lives of innocent people. Within 24 hours of this happening Katie Hopkins posted vile remarks on Twitter about how long the people of Scotland live for.
‘This is unacceptable and distressing to those who lost friends and family. We the undersigned are sick and tired of ITV and Channel 5 giving her airtime and want her banned from all TV shows on your channels such as This Morning and The Wright Stuff.
‘This woman is nothing more than an attention seeker who does not deserve to be a celebrity.’
Reacting to the petition, Katie tweeted:
‘Am told I am the Biggest Bitch in Britain. Following Independence I will only be the Biggest Bitch in England. Always a positive if you look.
‘Yikes, I am being reported to Channel 4 and the BBC. In a moment I will forced to read the Labour manifesto and subscribe to the Guardian.
‘There appear to be a number of conflicting petitions out there to have me hung and quartered. Please do feel free to sign them all. PC tastic.’
But following further outcry, the 38-year-old took to Twitter the following day to apologise, writing:
‘My tweet on Scotland was directly related to this article: [ Report on life expectancy in Scotland]… …. I apologise to those I offended. It was poor timing’.
Do you think the tweet was insensitive or are people overreacting?
Comment below for your chance to wina £25 supermarket voucher