A UKIP candidate, who was suspended from the party for his 4,500 word ‘personal manifesto’ suggesting that all abortions should be compulsory for foetus’ with Down’s syndrome, will still be running in Kent’s by-election tomorrow.
Clarke’s foam-at-the-mouth rant called disabled babies a “burden on the state”:
“Consider compulsory abortion when the foetus is detected as having Downs, spina bifida or similar syndrome which, if it is born, will render the child a burden on the state as well as on the family.”
Although forced to run as an independent, the ballot papers will still mark disgraced Geoffrey Clark as UKIP as the sheets have already been printed. The manifesto, which was published on his website, has since been removed.
UKIP almost fell over themselves in a rush to distance the party from what they described as “abhorrent views”.
We can confirm that Mr Clark has been formally suspended as a UKIP candidate and will not be standing for the party again.
— UKIP (@UKIP) December 18, 2012
Suspensions of off-message candidates are a rare thing in libertarian UKIP — showing the extent to which Clark had crossed the line of decency.