Change UK humiliated as MEP candidate quits over anti-Romanian and pro-Brexit tweets
Ali Sadjady previously said he would support Brexit if it stopped 'Romanian pickpockets' coming to the UK
THE new anti-Brexit party was humiliated last night when one of its candidates was forced to stand down within hours – over offensive online comments.
Ali Sadjady, a former Tory businessman, was unveiled as a Change UK candidate for next month’s European Parliament elections yesterday afternoon.
But it soon emerged that he had previously made controversial public comments on social media – and also disagreed with the party’s policy of having a second referendum.
He had written on Twitter in 2017: “When I hear that 70 per cent of pickpockets caught on the London Underground are Romanian it kind of makes me want Brexit.”
After the referendum he had tweeted: “Brexit is like dumping your girlfriend because she’s expensive and high maintenance and then realizing she’s pretty hot.”
And just last year he wrote that a second referendum would be a “slap in the face of democracy”.
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Last night the party announced Mr Sadjady – on the London MEP list – had “reflected on his inappropriate tweet from 2017 and agreed to stand down from the list of potential candidates”.
It is yet another embarrassment for the fledgling. On the day it was launched in February, Labour defector Angela Smith had to apologise for appearing to use the phrase “funny tinge” to describe ethnic minority people.
Last week its proposed logo was rejected as misleading by the Electoral Commission, meaning there will be a blank space next to its candidates’ names on ballot papers next month.
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