LONDON: Britain’s anti-European and anti-immigration UK Independence Party faced a growing racism storm yesterday ahead of local elections seen as a test of its ability to take seats off Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservatives.
Leader Nigel Farage admitted “teething problems” after a UKIP candidate was suspended for apparently making a Nazi salute — but then Farage himself drew criticism for referring to “colored people” in a radio interview.
The Conservatives have stepped up an offensive on UKIP — a party that Cameron once described as “fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists” — fearing they could lose seats to UKIP in county council elections in England tomorrow.
UKIP gains could also help the opposition Labour party, which is leading national opinion polls ahead of the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, the junior partners in Cameron’s coalition government. The term “colored people” is widely considered as racially offensive in Britain.
Euroskeptics in Britain caught in race storm
