UKIP candidate ranted about ‘arse bandit’ pride on Facebook
Yet another UKIP Parliamentary candidate has been revealed to have posted homophobic remarks on Facebook, claiming “being an arse bandit [is] nothing to be proud of”.
Geoffrey Caton, who is running for Parliament for the UK Independence Party in Labour-held Wallasey, made derogatory comments about Liverpool Pride on his Facebook page.
The candidate – who is up against out Labour candidate Angela Eagle – wrote in 2013: “Liverpool pride August 3rd being an arse bandit nothing to be proud of”.
He also said that working in a “Pakistani club” was his “worst nightmare”, and shared a photo labelling same-sex weddings “sin” – in posts revealed by anti-extremism blog Hope Not Hate, which has been researching a number of UKIP candidates.
Mr Caton, who has since deleted his Facebook page, told the Liverpool Echo: “We are living in modern times now, times change I realise that.
“We have to move on with the times, I have now, and since then whatever I said obviously wasn’t right then and it’s not right now and I fully believe in being fully inclusive.”
He is the latest in a string of UKIP candidates to be caught making such posts.
The same blog previously posted screenshots in which the party’s Oxford West and Abingdon PPC Alan Harris appeared to say: “why cant i say in my own bloody country black is still a colour and gay are still queers”, as well as posting derogatory messages about Muslims.
Mr Harris claimed his Facebook had been “hacked” – despite the posts appearing over a number of years.
Questions were also raised about Oxford candidate Dickie Bird, who allegedly complained on Facebook that he was sat opposite a “gay pr**k” on the bus – and labelled footballer Fernando Torres a “gay boy”.
Mr Bird, Mr Harris and Mr Caton all remain UKIP Parliamentary candidates.
