Every now and then, the belief that UKIP and its supporters are anything more than the brutish grunts who like to comment on things online and complain that the country has ‘gone to the dogs’ because they’re no longer in charge of making people crap, can waiver. With 14% support in the polls they can’t all be bad guys, can they?
Perhaps not. But then again, among their ranks, they still have John Leathley, a candidate to become MP of Sedgefield, County Durham. What’s so wrong with the 23-year-old?
His comments about female journalist, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, made on Facebook’s Young UKIP after she appeared on Question Time:
‘sleeping with women (when done properly) makes them crazy’.
And that Alibhai-Brown: ‘needs a good shag’.
After a friend suggested John might want to sleep with another panellist first, he responded: ‘Yasmin first for practice mate. Take one for the team. Or give one depending what mood she’s in.’
A friend said: ‘I’d stick a cannon up her arse and fire her into Israel, see how long she lasts
To which Leathley replied: ‘She would love a big black thing up her arse’.
The messages, leaked to Labour students, have now been made public and seeing as Leathley can’t be removed by UKIP (there’s too little time before the election), he’s issued an apology, misspelling her name:
‘I am shocked by [the comments] and am appalled and deeply ashamed of my words.’
Alibhai-Brown won’t accept the apology, telling Mirror Online: ‘I saw the apology and, of course, I’m not going to give any credence to it at all. You don’t apologise because you’re found out. Was he drunk? If he wasn’t, then what he said was absolutely appalling. It’s sexist, it’s racist, it’s violent.
‘And for what? Because I’m a public figure? What gives this guy permission to do this? I’ve always said UKIP was the nasty party and we find out again and again with incidents like this.’
Need another incident like this? Robert Blay threatening to shoot his rival. Blay, who was standing for the seat of North East Hampshire was caught on camera talking to a Mirror investigator about his Conservative rival Ranil Jayawardena, who has been tipped to become the UK’s first Asian prime minister.
‘If he is I will personally put a bullet between his eyes. 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,’ he said.
‘I won’t have this fucker as our prime minister. I absolutely loathe him.’
Blay has now been removed from UKIP, with Nigel Farage calling the comments he made ‘stupid’.
Hmm. But not surprising from a Kipper, are they?
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.