Afzal Khan MEP was selected from an all-Asian shortlist to replace the late Gerald Kaufman MP. He has been busy cleaning up his social media accounts but nothing is deleted forever from the internet.
Back in 2014 Khan tweeted that "The Israeli government are acting like Nazi's in Gaza". Whilst the Israeli government certainly has a lot to answer for over their continued illegal occupation of Palestine, there is some way to go before they can be legitimately compared to the genocidal, homicidal Nazis.
In 2015 Khan attended an event to celebrate 36 years since the Iranian revolution which turned a culturally liberal (albeit politically oppressive) kingdom into an ultra-conservative theocracy which places little value on human rights and freedoms. Men and women were segregated at the event, naturally.
Khan is the North West regional organiser for the Muslim Council of Britain, an Islamist group that campaigned to water down anti-terrorism laws, signed a declaration calling for opposition to "Zionism" by any means, funds Islamic literature for primary schools and is believed to have been involved in the Trojan Horse scandal which saw attempts by Islamists to take over and Islamise state schools.
Not only are Khan's morals pretty poor, his record as a politician is somewhat lacking too. Only four of his 72 written questions to the EU Parliament were about the UK, two of which were trying to undermine the British government and one was worrying about the impact of Brexit on the remaining EU member states. Out of 157 motions in the EU Parliament that he has put his name to, only two are related to the UK and those are both about the same British citizen jailed in Thailand for co-authoring a critical report on human rights in a Thai company. A worthy cause but 155 of the 157 motions he put his name to have nothing to do with the UK. He spends most of his time as an MEP talking about Africa, the Middle East and South America, what use would he be as Gorton's MP?
UKIP's candidate for the Gorton by-election is Phil Eckersley, a former quantity surveyor and now managing director of a care company specialising in caring for people suffering from dementia. Phil contested the Gorton seat at the last election where he finished in 4th place with 8.2% of the vote in an election that saw just 674 votes separate him from the 2nd placed Green. In that election, Gerald Kaufman increased his majority by 17% to take 67.1% of the vote but it was a victory for the immensely popular and well respected Gerald Kaufman, not the Labour Party. Afzal Khan with his Islamist links and anti-Israeli overtones won't command anywhere near the support his predecessor did. Overturning a 34k vote, 57.3% majority is a big ask but anything can happen in politics.
wonkotsane is an author at Bloggers4UKIP.
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