Vote No To The BNP

An election candidate outraged a soldier’s family after she wore a burka as fancy dress to a charity fundraising party.

Charlotte Lewis, the British National Party parliamentary candidate for Carshalton and Wallington and for the Shirley ward for Croydon Council, was condemned by the mother of a hero soldier who lost both his legs in Afghanistan for turning up to a Help for Heroes fundraiser in a burka and fishnet stockings.

The woman, from Mitcham, who did not want to be named, claimed Miss Lewis laughed in her face when she confronted her offensive behaviour.

She claimed Miss Lewis, 37, who wore suspenders with the burka and drank alcopops, told her to “get a sense of humour” at the BNP organised event, at Singlegate Working Mens’ Club in Mitcham.

The mother said her son, who is struggling to adjust to life without his limbs as he rehabilitates in Headley Court, had been equally disgusted by Miss Lewis’ behaviour.

She said: “My son was seriously injured by a bomb in Afghanistan and still has shrapnel behind his eyes.

“The BNP said they would like to do something, but I said no as I didn’t want to be associated with them.

“All they were interested in was an image of my son just so they could use it to boost their BNP message, but I wouldn’t have it.

“They said they would do something for Help for Heroes anyway and I decided to go just to support that.

“But obviously walking into that it was just beyond belief.

“I said ‘it’s not funny, it’s not correct, to dress like that when my son has lost his legs’.

“But she didn’t want to know. She said I didn’t have a sense of humour. Can you imagine how I felt? It was so insensitive.

“My son was not pleased when I told him, he doesn’t want anything to do with them. One of his best friends in the Army is black; they’ve both fought for this country.

“They [the BNP] were riding on the back of wounded soldiers to help themselves, it was insensitive.”

Miss Lewis used her Facebook account to post racist messages, including one calling for foreign “Paki” criminals to be executed.

In another message she encouraged attacks on the home of a teenager who killed a cat and said: “I hope she gets cancer.”

She told the Guardian she thought wearing the burka was “completely acceptable” and “hilarious”.

Bryn Parry, chief executive and co-founder of Help for Heroes, said the organisation would “strongly condemn anyone who used an H4H event to cause upset”.

He said: “The money that we raise at Help for Heroes is used to support wounded servicemen and women of every colour and creed and we strongly oppose any individual or political party who believes otherwise, and those who seek to use the charity’s name for their own political gain.”

Charlotte Lewis said: “The quotes attributed to me in the article are false – I did not say those things to that lady.

“I apologised for any offence I may have caused her, while at the same time asserting my right to wear whatever fancy dress costume I like to a Halloween party.

“I did not ‘laugh in her face’, and anyway even if I had then how would she have been able to tell – as my face was covered?

“I could have gone as a witch or a ghost, but they’re not nearly half as spooky/scary as militant Islam.”

Are these the types of things we expect people who wish to be elected to do at a charity event for the very soldiers they so loudly claim to be working to bring home? it remains a clear fact that the BNP care about as much for soldiers as they do for the country as a whole, they are clearly only interested in  using British soldiers in order to gain votes and to exploit the current Afghan conflict for political gain and to continue to spread their own brand of racial hatred.

The BNP should withdraw this candidate from the coming elections and remove her from the party if as they claim they are a serious political party who really have the best interests of British people and British soldiers at heart.

Vote No To The BNP in 2010

©2010 Vote-No-To-BNP