Exclusive: UKIP candidate says Twitter account mocking ‘only gay in the village’ was fake
PinkNews Exclusive
A UKIP candidate has denied he was responsible for a Twitter account that mocked transgender people and joked about starting a ‘gay riot’.
A Twitter account in the name of Bill Walker, who is standing for the UK Independence Party in Aldershot, made the comments when asked to sign a non-binary rights pledge by trans activist Jasper Williams.
The pledge, which has been signed by 687 candidates including 14 from UKIP, calls on politicians to reform the Equality Act and Gender Recognition Act to extend rights to people who identify as neither male nor female, and to support the introduction of non gender-specific ‘Gender X’ passports.
When asked to sign the pledge, the account in the name of Mr Walker replied: “No. Why would I do that? Will you pledge to vote UKIP if you do?
“Non-binary is such a stupid term. What does it say on your birth certificate? There you are.”
The account later joked: “I think I’ve just offended the only gay in the village. 
“There’s going to be some really bad weather ahead. All the gays are uprising.”
He then re-tweeted a quote from Katie Hopkins, adding: “Just been asked to sign some weird thing about ‘non binary’ people’s rights, and have started a gay riot!”
The account had separately branded Gurkhas as “parasites”, amid tragedy following the earthquake in Nepal.
Mr Walker said: “There is a fake twitter account with my name on it, accusing me of calling the Gurkhas a bad name. I reiterate this is a fake account. I have the greatest respect for the Gurkhas and my heart breaks at what is happening in Nepal right now.”
The candidate says he closed his actual Twitter account after an incident in February – after he was caught retweeting a controversial cartoon from the BNP – and that the Twitter name was hijacked by an internet troll.
Jasper Williams told PinkNews: “I’m relieved that for once, the bigoted views aren’t from a real UKIP candidate after all.
“I’d like to invite the genuine Mr Walker to sign the non-binary rights pledge. Non-binary people still lack basic rights in the UK, and we want all politicians to come forward and pledge to make changes.”
It is the latest in a string of alleged hoaxes targeting the party – with a fake ‘UKIP Voices’ blog denounced by the party earlier this month.
PinkNews reported last year that a number of senior UKIP politicians were tricked into following a hoax account that sent openly homophobic messages.
