ANOTHER SCANDAL HAS hit the already gaffe-prone UKIP – just a day before the UK votes in a general election.
The latest controversy concerns a candidate who apparently threatened to shoot a rival.
Robert Blay, a candidate for North East Hampshire, was filmed by the Daily Mirror insulting Conservative rival Ranil Jayawardena and calling him ‘not British enough’.
The footage shows Blay remarking on the fact that Jayawardena has been tipped to be Britain’s first Asian prime minister.
“If he is I will personally put a bullet between his eyes,” Blay says in the footage.
If this lad turns up to be our prime minister I will personally put a bullet in him. That’s how strong I feel about it… I won’t have this f*cker as our prime minister. I absolutely loathe him.
Doubling-down on his offensive remarks, he adds:
I’ve always said in my constituency you could put a monkey out there with a blue rosette on and it would win.
A UKIP spokesman described Blay’s comments as “abhorrent” and said he had been immediately suspended from the party.
“Any comments of this sort have absolutely no place in British politics or public life, and the party would like to take this opportunity to apologise to Mr Jayawardena for any distressed caused,” the spokesman said.
The party has been attempting to shake-off accusations of racism, after several prominent members and candidates were caught up in scandals over their views in recent years.
Just last December, a councillor – Rozanne Duncan – was expelled from the party for saying she didn’t like ‘negroes’ in footage shot as part of a documentary for Channel 4.
Includes reporting from AFP.
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