Nigel Farage is facing calls to sack a Brexit Party MP candidate who shared and liked a series of Islamophobic Facebook posts.
John Booker, who will stand in the Yorkshire seat of Penistone and Stocksbridge, shared a screenshot of a chain email suggesting the United States was “cutting its own throat” because it was “not fighting back” against increasing “Islamist” influence in the country.
He also “liked” Facebook posts which suggested the UK government should “fight fire with fire” to respond to “atrocities of Islam” – and one which suggested the elevation of British-Somali Magid Magid to lord mayor of Sheffield was evidence that “the turkeys are voting for xmas”.
Local MP Angela Smith called on Farage to sack Booker if he was “serious about distancing himself from the racist overtones that characterised Ukip”.
Farage quit Ukip in December, complaining that it had become “obsessed with Islam and Tommy Robinson”. He has promised to be “deeply intolerant of all intolerance” in the Brexit Party.
The chain email shared by Booker includes a series of unsubstantiated or false claims about the Barbary wars and the influence of Muslims in the US, described as “death by a thousand cuts”.
The 2017 piece, unearthed by a Twitter account, MatesJacob, concludes: “Most Americans have no idea that this battle is being waged every day across America.
“By not fighting back, by allowing groups to obfuscate what is really happening, and not insisting that the Islamists adopt our culture, the United States is cutting its own throat with a politically correct knife, and helping to further the Islamists’ agenda.”
Smith, who sits as an independent MP, told HuffPost UK: “Booker’s comments on Facebook are completely unacceptable, especially given his ambition to represent Penistone and Stocksbridge in parliament.
“Only three months ago, he stood as a Ukip candidate in the constituency.
“If Nigel Farage is serious about distancing himself from the racist overtones that characterise Ukip, then he will remove Booker from his role as Brexit Party candidate for Penistone and Stocksbridge.”
Booker has been approached for comment, as has The Brexit Party.