Change UK candidate Jan Rostowski backs down on anti-gay comments
Jan Rostowski (GEORGES GOBET/AFP/Getty)
Jan Rostowski, who is running for the European elections with the pro-EU Change UK party, has backed down on past anti-gay comments he made.
Rostowski—who is a former minister for finance in Poland—was announced as a candidate for Change UK yesterday. However, it wasn’t long before an interview from 2011 resurfaced in which he said “a stable society is based on heterosexual relations.”
He has since backed down on the comments, according to Buzzfeed political correspondent Alex Wickham.
Jan Rostowski: ‘We should expect politicians to be able to change themselves’
“Jan Rostowski recants his claim that ‘a stable society is based on heterosexual relations’ and some Polish MPs are ‘undeclared gays’,” Wickham wrote on Twitter.
Rostowski reportedly said: “This campaign is about changing politics and we should expect politicians to be able to change themselves.”
Change UK has faced a number of controversies since it announced its candidates for the European elections yesterday.
Among those running with Change UK are: Gavin Esler, a former BBC Newsnight presenter and Stephen Dorrell, who served as health secretary in John Major’s government.
“This campaign is about changing politics and we should expect politicians to be able to change themselves.”
– Jan Rostowski
Since the party announced its election line-up yesterday, an old anti-Romanian tweet from candidate Ali Sadjady—a former Conservative MP—emerged.
In the tweet, which was posted in November 2017, Sadjady said: “When I hear that 70% of pick pockets caught on the London Underground are Romanian it kind makes me want Brexit.”
Sadjady has since stepped down from running with the party.
Jan Rostowski (GEORGES GOBET/AFP/Getty)
Ann Widdecombe is running for elections with the Brexit Party
Elsewhere, Nigel Farage announced this morning that former Conservative MP Ann Widdecombe—who holds extreme anti-LGBT+ views—would be standing as a candidate for his Brexit Party.
“I welcome Ann Widdecombe as our lead candidate in the South West, the Brexit Party is a stronger alliance as a result. This is great news,” Farage tweeted today.
Former Conservative party MP Widdecombe, 71, caused controversy when she made “homophobic” comments on Celebrity Big Brother in 2018.
Widdecombe, who has spent decades battling equal rights reforms in the UK, took part in Celebrity Big Brother alongside drag star Courtney Act and several other LGBT housemates.
The Conservative politician repeatedly clashed with Courtney Act, real name Shane Jenek, on the show over her “homophobic” views.
Widdecombe criticised Jenek’s “lewd” behaviour with fellow housemate Andrew Brady, calling the pair “disgusting” and telling Brady that his mother and grandmother would be ashamed of him for the homoerotic flirtations.
While during her time as an MP from 1987 until 2010, Widdecombe voted to opposed gay rights at every opportunity.
