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”
Thomas F. Lopez
So, again, why give Abbott a free pass?
I’ve already said, if J & TB are not taxpayer funded, I don’t mind them. You really are a special case, accusing me of not knowing what I’m talking about, then typing this rubbish, half of which is hearsay and the other half isn’t accurate.
So let’s begin- someone who has an axe to grind with Farage told some lies to make him look bad? Big deal. You could tell me he said that and have the same credibility. Next, an old man used an old-fashioned phrase that’s only mildly offensive and not a spec on what Abbott has said. I hope you’ve saved the best examples of racism till last because this is too easy. Gays causing floods? Wasn’t that said by someone who was dismissed from the party, and said equally stupid things in the past but nobody cared because he was a member of the LibLabCon? Explain how opposing Sharia in the UK is racist please? UKIP is not anti-Islamic, one of our chief members is a Muslim. The EDL has some knuckle draggers for sure, but if these are your best arguments about UKIP being racist, you’re making them look intelligent mate.
Frankie D.
Who said I’ve given her a free pass? Are you saying you’re happy for ukip to be a nest of racist, sexist thickos, as long as there are also occational bad people in other parties?
” if J & TB are not taxpayer funded, I don’t mind them.” Shouldn’t Paul Nuttall, of the ukips, have found this out one way or the other before he started campaigning against Jonny and the Baptists?
If the creator of ukip thinks you’re all a bunch of nutters, there might be something to it. Has Nige ever denied saying it?
An old man? One of the leading figures in ukip, at the time. “bongobongo land” is not mildly offensive, it’s out and out racist. What about calling women sluts? What is it that attracts racists, sexists and homophobes to ukip? You never did answer why Nige said he was for gay marriage recently then blamed that on an intern. Too many homophobes threatening to quit the party?
“Explain how opposing Sharia in the UK is racist please?” Because it’s not the law that scares you, it’s the fact that it’s done by people who are largely not white. How often has ukip campaigned against Halakha law in this country? Not to mention that you’re shitting yourself over something that will never happen.
“The EDL has some knuckle draggers for sure” No, the EDL has nothing but knuckle draggers. That’s who they are, thick, racist thugs. If you’re happy to support them with ukip, then you’re just showing your party for the scum you are.