UK: Clever crack was disrespectful

A Ukip candidate was forced to apology after he appeared to mock the victims of the Mediterranean refugee crisis – just days after hundreds drowned.

Peter Endean, who is standing for Nigel Farage's party in council elections, re-tweeted an image with a caption that said: 'Labour's new floating voters. Coming to a country near you soon'.

Around 1,300 people are believed to have drowned in the past two weeks while trying to reach Europe in make-shift boats launched by people smugglers from Libya – with up to 950 perishing off the Italian island of Lampedusa over the weekend alone.

Mr Endean, who is seeking election in Plymouth, Devon, and is also UKIP's communications manager for the city, has apologised and claims he re-tweeted it by mistake.

He said: 'I retweeted it by accident. It was not intentional and clearly a mistake. I apologise unreservedly.'

Earlier, Ukip's deputy chair Suzanne Evans described the situation as a 'devastating tragedy', but insisted Britain needed to be careful not to 'encourage' fleeing refugees from moving to the UK.

SOURCE