AN MP whose wife was left permanently disabled in the Brighton bombing has spoken out after a former newspaper editor revealed his support for the IRA.

Roy Greenslade, who has a home in Brighton and previously edited the Daily Mirror, announced he believed the IRA bombings were “justified” in an article for the March edition of the British Journalism review.

Mr Greenslade said he was “in complete agreement about the right of the Irish people to engage in armed struggle” and provided bail surety for an IRA man accused of participating in the Hyde Park bombing in 1982.

Lord Norman Tebbit’s wife Margaret was left permanently disabled after an IRA bomb was detonated at The Grand hotel during the Conservative Party's 1984 conference in Brighton.

The blast went off in the early hours of the morning of October 12, killing five and injuring dozens of others.

Mrs Tebbit spent two years in hospital recovering from spinal injuries, but remained in a wheelchair for the rest of her life.

Lord Tebbit told the Sunday Times: “I presume that the extension of his [Mr Greenslade] argument is that those who disagree with him are entitled to kill him.”

The former Fleet Street editor completed a degree in politics at the University of Sussex in 1974, where he earned his way through studying by sub-editing at publications including The Argus.

He also served as the paper’s community correspondent for Kemp Town up until 2017.

Mr Greenslade, who also worked for The Guardian, The Sun, and The Sunday Times, said he became radicalised as a reporter.

He added that he kept his views a secret as he thought it would damage his career.

He wrote: “I came to accept that the fight between the forces of the state and a group of insurgents was unequal and therefore could not be fought on conventional terms.

“In other words I supported the use of physical force.”

Mr Greenslade resigned from his position as honorary visiting professor of journalism at City, University of London.

When contacted, a spokesman for the Prime Minister commented: “The PM outright condemns his comments, specifically those about the killing of civilians.”