Labour accused of protecting ‘paedophiles in Rotherham’ by gay UKIP candidate.
A gay UKIP parliamentary candidate has accused Labour of protecting “paedophiles in Rotherham” and of homophobia.
Nathan Garbutt, who is standing in Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper’s West Yorkshire constituency of Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford, hit back at criticism of his party by the Labour frontbencher.
In a speech at the Labour Party Conference in Manchester, Ms Cooper said UKIP would “hurt working people” by charging for GPs while cutting taxes for the rich.
“Don’t let them ever, ever tell you they stand for working people,” she said.
“Their plans hit jobs, scrap your rights at work, charge you to see your GP and cut taxes for millionaires by more than David Cameron.
“That’s not helping working people – that’s hurting working people.”
UKIP candidate Nathan Garbutt, the former co-founder of the party’s LGBT group, launched a furious tirade at the Shadow Home Secretary.
Mr Garbutt’s statement to PinkNews.co.uk read:-
“Yvette Coopers [sic] comments show how concerned the Labour party are [sic] at the rise of UKIP, according to the Sun, senior officials in the Labour Party have been left ‘stunned’ by the recent surge in the popularity of UKIP.The decision to hold our annual gathering in Doncaster is a direct challenge to Ed Miliband on his home turf, and Labour should be worried the public are angry at Labours [sic] protection of paedophiles in Rotherham.
“Yvette Coopers [sic] answer to the UKIP threat is to tell lies about our policy, I would like to point out its actually Labour who want to charge people £10 to see their GP.
“I have been called homophoic [sic] by the Labour party simply for being part of UKIP, imagine how twisted a mindset has to be to accuse gay man of homophobia? The good news is the public are seeing past Labour lies and I am delighted to be the first UKIP candidate to oppose Yvette Cooper in my home town at next years general election.”
In response, Labour branded the UKIP candidate’s remarks “unfounded smears” and “barefaced lies”.
A Labour spokesperson told PinkNews.co.uk: “Mr Garbutt’s comments show just how low UKIP is willing to go. Whipping up hysteria and making unfounded smears on an issue as serious as child abuse exposes UKIP as a party all too willing to resort to dirty politics and barefaced lies.
“It was the UKIP health spokesperson, not a Labour health spokesperson, who said he would allow GPs to charge patients a ‘flat fee’. And it’s the Labour Party that introduced civil partnerships, paving the way for equal marriage, in contrast to UKIP leader Nigel Farage, who just months ago refused to support the legalisation of gay marriage and said ‘we are opening a very large can of worms.’”
