UKIP hopeful John Bickley has defended his use of leaflets about child grooming scandals in Rotherham and Rochdale following accusations he has drawn racial battle lines for political gain.
The candidate was joined by party leader Nigel Farage to canvass residents at a shopping centre in Middleton ahead of the by-elction next week.
A father of a child who was a victim of gangs in the Rotherham area has condemned the Cheshire-based politician’s actions and accused him of using BNP style tactics to win the seat.
Mr Bickley told MM: “We live in a free country. There is clearly an issue for many years in a lot of northern cities where predominantly young, white, vulnerable girls have been exploited, groomed, raped, trafficked and no one wanted to talk about it because it wasn’t politically correct.
“It didn’t fit with the multicultural experiment pushed by Labour. And we’ve seen the outcome of that in Rotherham where at least 1,400 girls have been found to been abused – but no one was speaking up for them.
“I am not yet aware of any Labour politicians who have fallen on their swords, and local council members and we’re here to talk about it because people here are very annoyed.
“This is nothing to do with racial divides. This is about what happened. We live in one country, where we have one law and everyone should be treated equally and fairly.”
The father of the main prosecution witness in the Rotherham child sex grooming scandal has accused Nigel Farage’s party of exploiting the issue for political gain.
The man, whose daughter’s testimony led to the prosecution of nine Asian men and an overhaul of Crown Prosecution Service rules, said that UKIP should stop using BNP style tactics which are adding to the distress of local families.
The BNP received 7% of the vote in the constituency at the last general election after more than 3,000 people voted for the far right party.
Critics believe that by focusing the volatile issues surrounding immigration and specifically child exploitation in Rochdale and Rotherham, the party is taking advantage of a sensitive but highly charged situation.
Mr Farage said: “I’m sure we’ll take some of the BNP votes, we’ll take the BNP votes of those people who voted BNP but held their noses doing so in not wanting to vote for a racist party but not knowing where else to go.
“We will never take the vote of the hardcore BNP and you know what, we don’t want them either.”
Rochdale became the centre of media furore in 2012 after a sex-trafficking gang of men, mainly Pakistani origin were found to have targeted at least 47 girls, all of whom were white. Many of the victims and their families come from Heywood.
The recent debacle in Rotherham is likely to have opened old wounds and the report published in August found that at least 1,400 children in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013.
Professor Alexis Jay, the report’s author, said that senior managers had ‘underplayed’ the scale and seriousness of the problem and police also failed to prioritise it.
“Now look, anywhere in life people should be accountable and if local authorities run by a political party and child services run by a political party led to this failure then people should be accountable, Mr Farage told MM.
“Until things really got intense in Rotherham, nobody got sacked. That’s ridiculous and so it’s about time people held their hands up and said sorry. But they don’t. They defend, defend, defend and now they say, ‘it’s not political’. But it is political. In fact, if it’s not political what is?”
