Ukip candidate quits because he's not a racist

A Ukip candidate has quit the party because he is not racist. Really.

Tim Wilson stood down as the party’s prospective parliamentary candidate in South Northamptonshire in protest at "racist" comments made by Ukip MEP David Coburn, who compared SNP minister Humza Yousaf to the terrorist Abu Hamaza in an interview with the Scottish Daily Mail.

Wilson told BBC Scotland that Coburn's comments, which he has since apologised for, were "Islamophobic.. and that's simply not acceptable".

He went on: "I think, frankly, that if you are in a position of power you have to be able to control what ideas emerge from your head and how they get to your mouth and, in fact, you shouldn't have those ideas in the first place.

"But the real issue is that when Mr Farage was asked what he thought about this he dismissed this as a joke," he said.

However a spokesperson for UKip said Wilson (pictured above) had been "out of his depth" as a candidate.

"Mr Wilson had clearly misunderstood the expectations that Ukip place on all of its candidates. Principal amongst those is focusing on issues that are relevant to local voters," they said.

Nigel Farage told the Press Association Coburn's comments had been "crass" rather than "racist", adding he was unsure why a Northamptonshire candidate would resign " over a comment made in Scotland".

"The comment made by David Coburn was made in very poor taste. I told him to his face. But the thought that that was a racist comment, sorry, I'm not computing. None of this adds up.

"These are the attacks the other sides put on us. I don't know Tim. I can only imagine he was very unhappy with the campaign or whatever it was he wanted to create a bit of a stir."

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