UKIP leader defends candidate who shared anti-Muslim tweets

UKIP leader Neil Hamilton said a candidate's offensive tweets about Islam were "of no consequence" to the election - Credit: PA

UKIP’s Wales leader has defended an election candidate who sent offensive tweets about Muslims.

Stan Robinson, who is running on the South Wales West list, sent several derogatory messages in the past fortnight about Islam and Muslims.

He has also retweeted a message labelling migrants “parasites” who should be “arrested” or “shot” to “stop the invasion”.

One graphic image tweeted at the end of last month depicted the Prophet Muhammad and suggested child abuse.

Robinson was one of the presenters of a YouTube channel named Voice of Wales, which has been accused of sharing racist tropes by the BBC’s Newyddion programme.

The Muslim Council of Wales says Stan Robinson’s Twitter account is a “collection of hateful, bigoted and deeply worrying misinformation and conspiracies”.

But leader Neil Hamilton rejected that claim, saying the Twitter account was “of no consequence” to the election.

Muslim Council for Wales General Secretary, Dr Abdul Azim Ahmed, told Newyddion: “UKIP must justify why such an individual is representing their party, and we in Wales must also face the disturbing question of why such a candidate is able to stand in the first place.”

Hamilton launched the party’s Senedd election campaign on Tuesday in a live Facebook stream.

Following a question from BBC Wales he said: “I’m afraid a free society does mean that some people will be offended, we can’t actually have a law which says you can’t say anything. If there’s the slightest risk you offend somebody.

“So whatever view you take Stan Robinson’s Twitter account I’m afraid it’s of no consequence in this election, which is about the prosperity of Wales”.

The UKIP leader also pledged to hold a vote on scrapping the Senedd if the party won a majority. He also promised to ban sex education in primary schools and end all assistance for refugees and asylum seekers in Wales.

UKIP won seven seats in the last Senedd election in 2016.

By the end of the last Senedd term, they had just one Member of the Senedd remaining.