Ukip leader Paul Nuttall to investigate anti-Islam election candidate for Lewisham

Ukip leader Paul Nuttall today said that he will investigate his party’s selection of an anti-Islam candidate in Lewisham East.

He failed to back Anne Marie Waters in a radio interview, telling the BBC that some of her views go “way above and beyond party policy”.

Ms Waters, who is director of Sharia Watch UK and former member of Right-wing group Pegida UK, was chosen by a local party branch to run against Labour’s Heidi Alexander.

Ukip’s national executive committee and Mr Nuttall were meeting today to decide whether Ms Waters will be allowed to represent the party.

He said: “I’ve seen some of the things that she’s said which make me feel a bit uncomfortable.”

Pressed if he and the executive could stop her from standing, he said: “Yes”.

A defiant Ms Waters was active on social media on Friday morning retweeting a comment that said “Islam is evil” and writing that party members have already decided she is suitable to stand.

In her campaign video launched on YouTube on Wednesday, she said that Muslim immigration concerns millions of Britons and there were fears “children are at risk of rape and sexual abuse”.

Mr Nuttall is tomorrow due to announce where he is standing in the general election, with Boston & Skegness the likely seat after Ukip finished second there in 2015, 4,000 votes behind the Conservatives.