We call on the British public to vote against UKIP in the Euro elections on 22 May 2014. During the election campaign the media has been full of reports of racist comments by UKIP members. These include William Henwood who was forced to resign from UKIP after suggesting Lenny Henry should emigrate to “a black country” and compared Islam to the Third Reich; and explicitly racist comments by suspended UKIP member Andre Lampitt who said Africans should “kill themselves off”, Islam is “evil” and Nigerians are “bad people”. We condemn this racism.
This follows the election adverts produced by UKIP attacking immigrants. For centuries lies have been spread about immigrants taking the jobs of established British communities, from Jewish people in the nineteenth century, Irish people in the early twentieth century, Africans, Bangladeshi, Indian and Pakistani communities in the post war era through to Polish, Romanian, Bulgarian and Eastern European migrants in the last decade.
This is a cynical attempt to score points prior to the Euro elections by wrongly blaming immigrants for cost of living crisis for the majority of the population, instead of blaming those responsible for the economy and the welfare of British people. This is whipping up racism and is the sort of climate that breeds hatred and violent racist attacks on Britain’s streets.
In the run up to the Euro elections we say: yes to diversity, decent jobs, housing and living standards for all and no to racism, hatred, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism and scapegoating immigrants. Vote against UKIP on 22 May 2014.
Jeremy Corbyn MP
Steve Hart, Chair, Unite Against Fascism
Fevzi Hussein, Policy Advisor, CWU
Kerry Abel, Secretary, Abortion Rights
Gerry Gable, Searchlight
Sabby Dhalu and Weyman Bennett, Unite Against Fascism Joint National Secretaries
Aaron Kiely NUS Black Students Officer
Lindsey German Convenor Stop the War Coalition
Denis Fernando Rainbow Coalition Against Racism
Bianca Pislog member, Europeans Party
Austin Harney, Chair, CRAIC (Campaign for the Rights and Actions of Irish Communities Fighting the Cuts)