UKIP Candidate William Henwood has resigned in a ‘mutual decision’ between him and his party after he made racist comments towards comedian Lenny Henry.
The candidate, who was hoping to be elected to Euston Council next month, shared his racist views on twitter, in response to Henry’s declaration that ethnic minorities are underrepresented in British media. Henwood then tweeted that Henry should ‘emigrate to a black country’.
While some people were amused by the somewhat ironic fact that Henry is in fact from the Black Country that is, Dudley, most were angered by Henwood’s statement describing it as ‘disgusting’, despite the UKIP party member’s insistence that his tweets were not offensive.
Henwood’s resignation comes in the midst of a number of other UKIP racial scandals including the suspension of the face of their EU campaign, Andre Lampitt, who tweeted a plethora of extremely racist comments, which including him stating that ‘Africans should be left to kill themselves ‘ and that Labour leader Ed Milliband is not really British.
Ukip has claimed that its party is a “non-racist, non-sectarian party whose members are expected to uphold these values”,
In response to Henwood’s tweets a UKIP spokesman stated “Any breach of our rules will be duly investigated and action will be taken.
“However one has to question why the other parties are spending hours behaving like secret police and trawling through the social media of UKIP candidates who are everyday men and women, rather than actually doing politics.
Lenny Henry thanked his fans for their support following the debacle, in a tweet he wrote: “loving the ‘but hang on, Lenny IS actually from the Black Country’ rejoinders…priceless…thanks for having my back.”
