Britain's far-right UKIP leaders say the darndest things about minorities and women

GlobalPost
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UKIP billboard

LONDON, UK — Britain's far-right, anti-immigration party rose rapidly up the political ranks over the last three years. Its populist message appealed to voters who felt ignored by the two major parties. At one point, pollsters even thought it would claim dozens of parliamentary seats in this week's election.

Not even close. The United Kingdom Independence Party, UKIP, may have reached the end of its meteoric streak of popularity. 

In Thursday's vote it won 12.6 percent of the popular vote, but only one seat — the thing that counts in British politics. The party's leader, the brash, famously un-P.C. Nigel Farage, lost his parliamentary race  and resigned almost immediately. It's not clear who might take his place, or what the party's future will be. 

More from GlobalPost: The UK’s election results are pretty shocking

In its time on the political stage, UKIP has distinguished itself through public pronouncements that range from head-scratching to jaw-droppingly offensive. Here’s a little rundown of the most memorable quotations from UKIP members, candidates and elected officials.

“We see Sharia law running de facto in our land and we see a birth rate which is several times ours … These people [Muslims] hate us with frightening religious fervor and we are right to fear them.”
Lord Malcolm Pearson, former UKIP leader.

“As for the links between homosexuality and pedophilia, there is so much evidence that even a full-length book could hardly do justice to the subject.”
Julia Gasper, UKIP member and former parliamentary candidate.

“Have you noticed that if you rearrange the letters in ‘illegal immigrants,’ and add just a few more letters, it spells, ‘Go home you free-loading, benefit-grabbing, resource-sucking, baby-making, non-English-speaking ********* and take those other hairy-faced, sandal-wearing, bomb-making, camel-riding, goat-********, raghead ******** with you.”
Chris Pain, UKIP councilor and regional chairman. Pain claimed his Facebook account was hacked when this was posted. He was later dismissed from the party.

"The scriptures make it abundantly clear that a Christian nation that abandons its faith and acts contrary to the Gospel (and in naked breach of a coronation oath) will be beset by natural disasters such as storms, disease, pestilence and war. I wrote to David Cameron in April 2012 to warn him that disasters would accompany the passage of his same-sex marriage bill. It is his fault that large swathes of the nation have been afflicted by storms and floods." 
David Silvester, UKIP councilor, in a letter to his local paper. The party suspended him for his remarks. 

Then-leader of UKIP Nigel Farage waded in water as he visited a flooded property at Burrowbridge on the Somerset Levels on Feb. 9, 2014 near Bridgwater, England.

“But maybe it’s because I’ve got so many women pregnant over the years that I have a different view.”
Nigel Farage, the party's leader until now, on why he opposes women in combat (we don’t get it, either).

“How we can possibly be giving a billion pounds a month when we’re in this sort of debt to Bongo Bongo Land is completely beyond me.”
Godfrey Bloom, former UKIP member of the European Parliament, on foreign aid.

“This place is full of sluts.”
Godfrey Bloom again. This one deserves a little extra examination.

Bloom made the remark at a UKIP conference on the role of women in politics. Reporters confronted Bloom on his choice of words on the steps outside Parliament.

“I made a joke and said ‘oh well you're all sluts’ and everybody laughed and all the women laughed,” he said.

Faced with further questions, Bloom got defensive.

 

“Was there a single women in there who didn't laugh at the joke, you sad little man?” he shouted at a reporter.

Then he started yelling. Then he started running down the street. And then he turned and slapped a reporter upside the head with a UKIP brochure.

UKIP fired him as party whip. He resigned from the party shortly after.

Editor's note: This story has been edited from an earlier version to remove comments that have since been discredited.

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