The British National Party (BNP) candidate for Dagenham has denied being anti-Semitic after sharing a Facebook post claiming Jews use Islam for world domination.
General election 2017 candidate Paul Sturdy shared a post on his Facebook on Monday, May 8, showing a big-nosed cartoon Jew saying “we want to create a one world state ruled by JEWS”.
It alleges a Jewish conspiracy in which they use Islam to stop nationalists like the BNP forming governments, but Sturdy’s not sure about being labelled anti-Semitic.
“I wouldn’t say I’m anti-Semitic,” he said. “I believe there’s a worldwide conspiracy – not of Jews – but of people of influence.”
But three days later he posted a status reading “No yids at Charing Cross yet”.
He claims he was using the pejorative term for Jews to refer to Tottenham Hotspur fans, some of whom call themselves “yids” to celebrate the club’s Jewish fanbase.
But Facebook friend Paul Stephen Conway responded with a post of Auschwitz concentration camp reading: “6 MILLION JEWISH VISITORS NOT ONE BAD REVIEW ON TRIP ADVISOR”.
Conway then posted a picture of six Orthodox Jews looking through bins, under which West Ham supporter Sturdy joked: “Still looking for three points ha ha ha”.
Sturdy shared the same picture himself five days later, joking the Jews were “looking for their silverware”.
He even targeted children with his bile.
In a Facebook post referring to Barking as “Barkinistan”, he shared a photo of youngsters – three of whom were black – playing drums in Station Parade and taunted them by writing “hope they were not too ‘offended’ by the British National Party leaflets warning against immigration”.
He told the Post his message was “targeting the immigrant population of Barking” but denied targeting the black children.
Despite posts directly addressing Jews, Muslims and children, he denied having a problem with immigrants and said his comments were directed at politicians.
“I don’t see a problem with Jewish people,” he said. “I don’t have a problem with immigrant people.
“The real problem is the politicians that allow this to go on in the country.”
He also admitted wishing the southern US states had won the American Civil War, even if it meant the continuation of slavery, after writing “the South will rise again” under a picture of the Confederate flag on Facebook.
“I’d have been on the side of the confederates,” he said.
And he told the Post he’s okay with being known as a racist, after saying as much in yet another Facebook post in March, which is perhaps unsurprising from an activist whose profile picture is the Odal, a pagan symbol popular with white supremacists who reject Judaeo-Christian influence in Europe.
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