UKIP selects ‘gay cure’ candidate for London Assembly election
UKIP has selected a proponent of gay ‘cure’ therapies as a candidate for the London Assembly.
Alan Craig was selected as UKIP’s candidate for the South West constituency of the London Assembly.
He beat Richard Hendron, an LGBT activist, who now says he will resign from the party.
Richard Hendron said he will resign from UKIP over the selection
Mr Hendron says when he first put himself forward for the candidacy the hustings was delayed, as the party wanted to give members a choice.
He says he has told the party’s Deputy Chair of his intention to resign, and will tender his resignation this evening.
A UKIP spokesman told PinkNews: “UKIP is proud that in Peter Whittle we have the only gay mayoral candidate and top of our Assembly list. That we have other candidates who have differing views merely illustrates our broad and inclusive approach”.
Mr Craig, who was selected at a hustings on Friday evening, previously compared gay equality advocates to the invading forces of Nazi Germany.
He was nominated for Stonewall’s ‘Bigot of the Year’ award in 2012.
The Former Christian Peoples Alliance leader, Craig defected to UKIP last year and was inserted as a candidate for Brent North over an existing local candidate.
However, just days after his selection last April, PinkNews revealed that Mr Craig was set to speak at a ‘gay cure’ conference.
Though conference organisers dropped Mr Craig after the PinkNews coverage, UKIP refused to discipline him, claiming that “as a party that believes in freedom of speech he has the right to speak”.
It was rumoured that he would stand for UKIP as the mayoral candidate, however the party selected out gay candidate Peter Whittle to run instead.
Mr Hendron, who organised the party’s controversial contingent at the Pride in London parade in 2015, confirmed to PinkNews last year that he planned to seek the party’s nomination to run for Mayor.
The barrister and former police officer, stood for Parliament in Brentford and Isleworth last May – and is not afraid to criticise his own party.
In 2015, he warned that the party is perceived as “overflowing with homophobes, racist and bigots” – adding that Nigel Farage’s remarks about HIV during the election were “indefensible” and “did no one any favours”.
The party was later accused of attempting to block Mr Hendron from becoming the mayoral candidate because of the comments.
