AN IMMEDIATE INVESTIGATION into a decision to remove three children from a foster home where the foster parents were members of the UK Independence Party has been ordered.
The children, who are from an EU migrant background, were removed by social workers.
According to the Daily Mail the head of children’s services in Rotherham has said that the foster parents’ membership of UKIP means that they oppose multiculturalism, and said that the parents ‘strong views’ were at odds with the ‘cultural and ethnic needs’ of the children.
The Guardian reports that UKIP leader Nigel Farage has said that decision to remove the children is a result of ‘political bigotry’.
The move by Rotherham council has been condemned by the Labour leader Ed Miliband, while the Education Secretary Michael Gove has called the decision ‘indefensible’. Downing Street meanwhile said that parents should not be judged on their political affiliations.
In a statement Rotherham councillor Paul Lakin has said:
Membership of a political party should not stop someone fostering children. The council takes its safeguarding responsibilities very seriously and always puts the needs of the children at the centre of that care.
This was a decision taken by social services professionals and I have ordered an immediate investigation to establish the full facts of this decision and asked for the report to be on my desk on Monday morning.
Farage yesterday told Channel 4 News that immigrants coming to live legally in the UK should be able to speak the language and live harmoniously with others. He said that the three children in question were in the process of learning English when they were removed.
He also rejected any suggestion that the controversy had been stirred by UKIP in advance of a by-election in Rotherham on Thursday:
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