Yesterday evening I was conducting a phonein on whether women should be able to serve on the frontline in the infantry when I was told that after the 5.15 news and travel I’d be interviewing Kerry Smith, the former UKIP candidate for South Basildon & East Thurrock. Earlier in the day Nigel Farage had defended his comments about ‘chinkies’ and ‘poofters’, calling him a ‘rough diamond’ and this had become a big story on the news channels during the course of the day.
What followed was thirteen minutes of radio gold. Mr Smith, it is fair to say, was unrepentant about his words, maintaining that they were the words that many people use. What I want to know is how he ever came close to being selected as a parliamentary candidate in the first place in a seat which UKIP reckon they have a good chance of winning. Not only that, but after he was deselected he was then reselected in order to stop Neil Hamilton becoming the candidate after the personal intervention of Nigel Farage, who, I am told on good authority knew all about the authority of the tape which was subsequently leaked to the Mail on Sunday. And UKIP reckon that they are different to the other parties and don’t indulge in this sort of skulduggery. Yeah, right.
Anyway, listen to the interview and judge for yourself whether Kerry Smith was ever fit to stand as a parliamentary candidate…
