Donna Edmunds, a UKIP councillor and candidate in the European elections, has said that businesses should be able to refuse services to women and gay people. She isn't the first UKIP candidate to court controversy.
Fresh controversy has been sparked after Donna Edmunds, a UKIP councillor in Lewes and a candidate for the party in the European elections, said that businesses should be able to refuse services to women and gay people (she now says she regrets the comments).
Edmunds expressed this opinion in response to a question on whether she supported David Silvester, the UKIP councillor for Henley-on-Thames who claimed that the recent storms and floods were caused by the government’s introduction of gay marriage.
These are just the latest in a long line of gaffes by UKIP candidates and representatives.
Here are some previous examples:
- Godfrey Bloom MEP left UKIP after he described a group of female party members as ‘sluts’ and hit Channel 4 News presenter Michael Crick over the head with a copy of the conference brochure. Before these incidents, Bloom was already in the public spotlight for claiming that the UK should not be sending aid to ‘bongo bongo land’. More recently, he shocked those present at an Oxford Union debate in January by asking a disabled student if he was ‘Richard III’.
- Geoffrey Clarke, a candidate in council elections in Kent, was suspended by the party in December 2012 after calling for an NHS review to look into whether foetuses with Down’s syndrome and spina bifida should be compulsorily aborted.
- Eric Kitson, a UKIP councillor on Worcestershire County Council, resigned in May last year after it was discovered that he had been posting racist and anti-Muslim cartoons on Facebook.
- Chris Pain, a county councillor in Lincolnshire, was removed as leader of the UKIP group in September (and was then removed from the party altogether) after being investigated by the police for allegedly posting racist comments on Facebook.
- Winston McKenzie, a by-election candidate in Croydon North in November 2012, claimed that allowing same-sex couples to adopt children was ‘unhealthy‘.
- Philip Rose, a candidate who said that ‘gay folk’ were ‘being used by forces of evil’ to stop UKIP’s progress.
- Henry Reilly, a councillor in Northern Ireland, claimed that a ‘militant gay lobby’ was trying to impose itself on Christian churches. He also pledged to ‘support Assad’ in a tweet about the situation in Syria in September.
- John Sullivan, a council candidate in Gloucestershire, said that regular physical exercise in schools can ‘prevent homosexuality‘.
- Anna-Marie Crampton, a candidate in council elections in East Sussex, was suspended by the party after making anti-Semitic comments in April last year, in which she claimed that the Jews deliberately organised the Second World War and sacrificed their own people in the Holocaust.
There are also the claims which have been made about the party’s leader Nigel Farage. As the party’s conference started in September last year, an alleged incident was brought to light from 1981 (when Farage was a member of the cadet force at his school, Dulwich College) in which he and others are supposed to have marched around a Sussex village singing Hitler Youth songs.
Channel 4 News also uncovered a letter from around this time, in which a teacher at Dulwich College claimed that Farage held “publicly professed racist and neo-fascist views” and expressed concern that he had been made a prefect.
Considering the phenomenon of the ‘rogue’ UKIP member is seemingly never ending, perhaps the cranks and oddballs are less the exception, but rather the rule.
87 Responses to “UKIP: a history of cranks and oddballs”
Frankie D.
No, they’re supposed to be doing their jobs, not working on the party campaign. No wonder they keep getting investigated for the misuse of their funds.
Frankie D.
They recieve no funding from the Art Council, they are not taxpayer funded. It’s quite simple.
UKIP have been around for 20 years. Why have they still not got a single mp?
So you can’t come up with any mud slinging? Why do you say they aren’t far right? Granted, it’s a bit hard to tell what they are supposed to be when they tear up their policies or redact them days later. What was Nige’s excuse for saying ukip supported gay mariage then changing his mind? Didn’t he blame it on an intern?
Thomas F. Lopez
The Arts Council is funded by the government (taxpayer) and the National Lottery. If they have funded the venues for the Stop UKIP tour, then Jonny and the Baptists are taxpayer subsidized. If the venues are charging Jonny and co the normal commercial rate for hiring the venues, then no problem. But if the venues are provided for free or at a reduced rate then somebody (the taxpayer) is subsidizing a partisan political point of view. So Frankie over to you, do you know if Jonny and the Baptists are paying the full comercial rate for hiring venues, or are they being subsidised at the taxpayer’s expense?
Frankie D.
Jonny and the Baptists recieve no funding from the Arts Council. They are not taxpayer funded.
Which of their venues receive Arts Council funding? Who else uses those venues? How much do they charge? Shouldn’t you already know all these things if you’ve been complaining about the funding? Or have ukip just been spouting off and trying to shit stir without any information, as usual?
Still no answer on the lack of MPs or evidence of mud slinging? How about the lack of policies?
Thomas F. Lopez
Shouldn’t you already know those things if you claim over and over that they aren’t funded by the taxpayer? If they do not pay the full commercial rate for venues than they are indeed taxpayer funded.
These questions are so obvious, I can’t believe I have to explaining things.
MPs: In 2010 people had faith the Conservatives would actually be conservative. A lot has changed since then. Also we may well get no MPs in 2015, but polls that don’t even prompt UKIP give us 11% and more. This is more than the Lib Dems so it is clear we are the third major party in terms of support, it’s just organizing that support. This is to be expected for a new party in British politics.
Mud Slinging: OK, here’s a good example of mud slinging by a total hypocrite that took me all of 20 seconds to find: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/03/22/diane-abbott-ukip-appealing-to-racism_n_5013549.html?utm_hp_ref=uk