Racist rants of the Red Baron

UNDER investigation...Graham Whitehead

A FAILSWORTH UKIP candidate has come under fire for racist and offensive comments on his Facebook page.

Police and Crime Commissioner Tony Lloyd has complained officially about Failsworth East candidate Graham Whitehead to Oldham Council returning officer Carolyn Wilkins.

On his private Facebook page, Graham “likes” the far right group Britain First — a group UKIP branded as nutters and whose slogan is “taking back our country”.

In screen shots Mr Whitehead is pictured wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with a poppy and the phrase “try burning this, you bastards”. In response someone has written a racist and foul-mouthed reply which Mr Whitehead appears to condone with the comment “nice one”.

Mr Lloyd said: “I think the public will be shocked by the level of overt racism from this candidate. I have referred this matter to Oldham Council to see if there has been a breach of electoral law.”

In July 2014, Mr Whitehead used similar language in a post slamming political correctness and urging others to “join together and save this land for our children”.

Mr Whitehead, a dentist who lives in Chadderton, has also written “why is it not on the main news that Muslims burnt poppies with slogans about our soldiers? Or is it not PC?”

His profile picture is World War One German fighter pilot Manfred Von Richthofen — better known as the Red Baron.

In July 2014, he posted a picture of a child standing at a cash machine in Manchester with his mum, commenting “So you ask what have the Romanian asylum seekers got to offer our society? Well I’ll tell you, it’s the mullet.”

Another picture on his page, posted in October 2011, shows a young boy and girl posing with two monkeys and he has written “it was an arranged interracial marriage” and “it was in the 1800s, so the world wasn’t as PC” followed by “santa had to use monkeys, as dwarves weren’t invented then”.

The other Failsworth East candidates are current Council Leader Jim McMahon (Lab), Antony Cahill (Con), Bill Cullen (Lib Dem) and Andy Rossall (Green).

UKIP did not respond to requests to comment but it is believed they are now investigating.