Ex-Conservative member Rory Stewart, who was also a leading candidate for to be the leader of the party as well as the Prime Minister, has described three men he met in East London during his campaign to become leader of the Conservatives as “minor gangsters”.

The former cabinet minister, who is now standing to be mayor of London, met the group while on one of his 'Rory Walks' during the summer, where he filmed conversations with random people he met, as part of his leadership campaign.

According to The Guardian, Stewart made the comments while talking about social media, at an event at the Emmanuel Centre in central London on Wednesday evening.

He said: “One thing about social media is that it allows people to see politicians listening ... I can go to Brick Lane and three sort of minor gangsters can come up to me and spend a minute telling me I’m an idiot. And I can film it on my phone and put it up. And people love watching people being rude to politicians.”

You can watch the exchange here:

You can’t win ‘em all... Brick Lane #RoryWalks pic.twitter.com/mAFSQuZuGp

— Rory Stewart (@RoryStewartUK) June 9, 2019

After the video went viral, it was revealed that the men in the video were, in fact, part of the highly-acclaimed Irish RnB/hip-hop group Hare Squead (who now operate in London).

Far from being "gangsters", the group are one of the most exciting emerging acts from Ireland. They gained international acclaim with their single 'Herside Story', and they made their explosive return to music earlier this year, with new singles 'Petty' and '100 Miles'.

We caught up with Hare Squead just last month, where they talked about their exchange with Rory Stewart.

“Rory Stewart, he’s a clout chaser man!” said hare Squead's Lilo. “I can’t lie to you – we did not plan that. We were doing our thing, walking down Brick Lane, when we saw some guy walking towards us with a camera. He walked up to his and he looked a bit fucking creepy. He was like, ‘Can I ask you a few questions on camera?’ We said, ‘Sure, why not.’ Camera starts rolling and he says, ‘Can I ask you about politics?’ We’re like, ‘Shit, that’s not our portion at all. Fuck that shit, let’s leave!’ People were saying we planned it – we did not plan that at all. If you see how we reacted, that’s just how we react, that’s the energy we have. He’s a little chancer. Fair play to him, he got what he wanted. But he still lost in the end, didn’t he!”

You can read the full interview here.