UKIP candidate suspended over compulsory abortion suggestion

A UKIP candidate standing for election on Thursday has had his candidacy suspended by the party after publishing a personal manifesto that included a proposal for a commission into the NHS looking at cost-saving measures including compulsory abortions for foetuses testing positive for Downs Syndrome or Spina Bifida.

The party has immediately suspended him as a UKIP candidate and says that nobody was aware of the existence of the personal manifesto until Geoffrey Clark published it on his website.

Ukip reject the abhorrent views expressed in the personal manifesto of Mr Geoffrey Clark, a candidate in the local elections. The party was not aware of these views when it allowed him to stand under our name.

“We can confirm that Mr Clark has been formally suspended as a Ukip candidate and will not be standing for the party again. We would like to apologise to anyone who has suffered distress as a result of this matter.

Clark himself has said that he doesn't personally support the idea of compulsory abortions but had suggested it as something the commission could consider.

I do not endorse these ideas. They are for the commission to consider how best to cut service levels if it is decided to do so.

The comments have attracted the wrath of mental health charity, Mencap and the left wing media who have been looking for a reason to talk UKIP down after recent opinion poll and by-election results have confirmed that UKIP has replaced the Lib Dems as the third party.

Geoffrey Clark is contesting the Meopham North by-election on Thursday for the second time in just over a year.  In October last year he came a very strong second.  Meopham North is a bellweather constituency which should have given us a really good insight into the likely outcome of the next election but that's gone by this will have scuppered that.

Another second place for UKIP

Yesterday's by-election in Meopham North saw UKIP achieve the second place predicted by Survation on Wednesday but by a much higher percentage.

Survation had predicted that the Conservative candidate would secure 52% of the vote and the UKIP candidate, Geoffrey Clark, would come second with 26%.  The actual result was 48% for the Conservative candidate and 34% for UKIP.

Meopham is only a village in Kent and the by-election for a council seat but it's important because the Gravesham constituency of which it is a part is known as a bellwether constituency, meaning the voting pattern matches that of the country as a whole - only one result has differed from the national result since the first world war.

It must be stressed that by-elections are not an accurate prophesy of general election results, especially council by-elections.  However, they do reflect the overall trend and that trend is an upwards one for UKIP.  I think Survation's predictions are probably more reflective of a possible general election result than a council election and that is very encouraging indeed.

Geoffrey Clark must be gutted to have missed victory by such a small number of votes - there were just 186 votes in it - but this is still an excellent result for UKIP.  The Tories will have watched this election result closely and they will be getting worried.