Update: “Police seize computer and search home of UKIP’s Eric Kitson”

UKIP’s Eric Kitson

“POLICE have raided the house of a UKIP politician embroiled in a race hate storm – as he confirmed his formal resignation as a councillor is taking place today.

Officers from West Mercia Police have searched the Stourport-based home of Eric Kitson and seized his computer to gather evidence for a possible prosecution.

The 59-year-old has not been arrested, but has been voluntarily interviewed about the saga of his anti-Muslim, anti-Jewish Facebook rants.

He will formally resign as a councillor at 4pm today – despite only winning a seat at Worcestershire County Council 13 days ago.

It means his spell at County Hall is the shortest of any elected politician in the authority’s history, and will trigger a by-election.

A statement released on his behalf by UKIP said: “It is with sadness that I am announcing my resignation as a councillor.

“I am extremely sorry to have let down my friends, the people in the hardworking UKIP team that got me elected, the people of Stourport, and of course my family.

“Like many people who are not professional politicians I used my Facebook page a general post board.

“That was foolish – I am no racist, but I can understand why people could think so.”

 The UK Independence Party say a meeting is due in the coming days of its decision-making National Executive Committee, which is almost certain to revoke his membership too.

He was outed over the weekend for filling his now-deleted Facebook page with a host of racist images and cartoons.

Among the most shocking was a cartoon of a Muslim being spit-roasted on a fire fuelled by copies of the Koran.

He also made comments referring to Muslim women, saying “hang um first then ask questions later” and called for the repatriation of “six million migrants and refugees”.

West Mercia Police had received complaints from the public over the saga, and acted by searching his home last night.

A spokesman said: “Eric Kitson, from Stourport, was voluntarily interviewed by officers from West Mercia Police over concerns raised by the public about allegedly offensive and racist comments made on social media.

“A computer was seized and a property in Stourport searched by police for evidence gathering purposes.

“A file has been submitted to the Crown Prosecution Service for their consideration.”

Police have also taken a statement from Mumshad Ahmed, a Muslim former county councillor, who wants him prosecuted for inciting racial hatred.”

Link

Further reading: “More Ukip horror as investigation exposes racist abuse”

Latest (mainstream): 12.06.13:  Support for UKIP plummets by A THIRD – leaving them tied with the Lib Dems, poll reveals

Update on Kitson: Defeated councillor John Thomas wins Stourport by-election

“Worcester UKIP candidate Richard Delingpole in Photoshopped Hitler picture row”

The posh nazis at UKIP try and hide behind the ‘joke’ tag yet again..

The picture featuring Richard Delingpole and Adolf Hitler

“A UK Independence Party election candidate in Worcester has published a doctored image of himself on the internet standing behind Adolf Hitler.

Richard Delingpole, who is standing for county council election in the Riverside ward, posted the image on Twitter.

One political rival has branded the picture “sickening and abhorrent”.

But the businessman, of Henwick Road, St John’s, has insisted the image was a joke in response to reports that the Conservative party is trawling social networking sites looking for dirt on UKIP candidates.

The picture shows Adolf Hitler, with three henchmen standing behind him, all of whom have had their faces changed to a youthful looking Mr Delingpole.

Yesterday UKIP’s Worcester branch apologised, blaming a “very deep sense of humour” which could be misunderstood.

Carl Humphries, the branch organiser for Worcester and Mid-Worcestershire, said he would not be thrown out of the party.

“I can assure you he is definitely not a Nazi or anything like that – he’s got a very deep sense of humour,” he said.

“He has been vetted by me, all our candidates are clean in every respect, but I am sorry if this offended people.”

Mr Delingpole, who runs a design agency, has now deleted the picture.

“There’s a story going around that the Tories are trawling Facebook accounts of UKIP candidates to drag up things about them, this was a joke based on that,” he said.

“Of course people won’t think I’m an Adolf Hitler sympathiser, to suggest otherwise is disingenuous.

“It’s clearly a picture of Adolf Hitler I have photo-shopped, it shows we’ve got a sense of humour.”

Mr Delingpole, who is a war re-enactor, said the image first appeared on his Facebook page some time ago after a friend joked that he was a Nazi.

 He posted it on Twitter yesterday morning with the caption: “I really must get rid of some of these old Facebook images before the Tories get hold of them” before deleting it.

But the image was seen by a Conservative councillor in another part of the country, who tipped off colleagues in Worcestershire.

Yesterday Coun Simon Geraghty, who is standing for the Conservative party in Riverside, said: “I find it absolutely sickening and abhorrent.

“I think the vast majority of British people will find this shocking – it’s not funny at all, it’s dreadful and I can’t believe he’s done it.”

UKIP is fielding 1,734 candidates in tomorrow’s council elections, but over the last few days it has been forced to suspend three candidates – one for being an ex-BNP activist, another for “liking” the extremist English Defence League on Facebook, and the third for being a former National Front Organiser.

Yesterday, a spokesman from UKIP’s national HQ in London said: “Richard Delingpole‘s not dodgy in any way – he did it because he’s fed up of people being professionally outraged.”

Meanwhile, UKIP leader Nigel Farage has waded into the controversy today, by saying it was “a joke” in the wake of yesterday’s coverage of rotten UKIP candidates in the Daily Mirror.

He said: “To present it as anything else would be a travesty.”

In today’s Sun newspaper another UKIP candidate, Bradley Monk, aged 19, who is standing at Hampshire County Council, was outed for posting snaps of himself online as shamed pervert Jimmy Savile.

He wore a mask of the disgraced paedophile at a Halloween party last year.

He said it was a “harmless joke” and added he was “in no way endorsing” what Savile did.

Mr Farage has admitted the party is too small to properly vet the record number of council candidates standing in the elections.

* The other candidates in Riverside are Labour’s Lynn Denham, Green Louis Stephen, Sean McCauley for Trades Unionists and Socialists Against the Cuts and Julie Whitwam for the BNP.”

Link

Richard Delingpole Worcester ukip

Bradley Monk Hampshire ukip

Further reading:

“UKIP officials expresses sympathy for far-Right EDL”

“Far right connections of UKIP candidates revealed as elections loom”

“Some Ukip candidates could be BNP members, says leader Nigel Farage”

“Key UKIP member went on marches with the English Defence League”

“UKIP Cumbria candidate posts racist ‘niggers’ photo”

“UKIP election candidate pictured giving Nazi salute and wielding knife”

“Anger after UKIP billboard defaced”

From worcester evening news

“VANDALS have defaced a giant UK Independence Party election billboard in Worcester so it reads like a BNP advert.

The sign, at the bottom of Newtown Road and one of four UKIP posters in the city, was scribbled over in ink and paint so it read like an advert for the far-right British National Party.

Bosses decided to take it down over the weekend and have hit out at the perpetrators. Carl Humphries, UKIP organiser for Worcester and Mid-Worcestershire, said: “I can tell you now we have strict ruling over any BNP members who want to join our party.

“We ask prospective members to fill out a form and if they either belong to the BNP now or used to be a member, they have no chance whatsoever with us. It’s a shame but we have always anticipated bits of graffiti going on any political sign, it’s the way it works sometimes.”

At the moment, the party’s other three adverts in Sherriff Street, Midland Road and next to Shrub Hill Station have not been targeted. Meanwhile, party organisers have come in for criticism after activists printed a leaflet asking people to vote on the wrong date for May’s elections.

As well as Worcestershire County Council’s election count, a by-election is taking place on Thursday, May 2 for the Chase seat on Malvern Hills District Council.

 The by-election has been sparked by Councillor Steve Brown resigning from both County Hall and the district council in order to run his own publishing business. UKIP has circulated a leaflet around the ward asking people to vote on Sunday, May 5, in error.

The leaflet has been put through doors with a silver sticker covering it up. Councillor Lucy Hodgson, who is standing for the Conservatives for the Chase County Hall seat, said: “There was this silver sticky tape stuck over the date – we were surprised it had gone out like that.”

Mr Humphries said he “could not believe” the mistake had been made, but insisted UKIP was still getting a positive reaction on the doorstep. The leaflet was laid out and printed before party members realised the typing mistake.

“The reaction on the doorstep is positive, that’s what our focus is,” said Mr Humphries. UKIP is standing 42 candidates next month.”

link

Further reading

“UKIP officials expresses sympathy for far-Right EDL”

“Far right connections of UKIP candidates revealed as elections loom”

“Some Ukip candidates could be BNP members, says leader Nigel Farage”

“Key UKIP member went on marches with the English Defence League”

“UKIP Cumbria candidate posts racist ‘niggers’ photo”

“UKIP election candidate pictured giving Nazi salute and wielding knife”