UKIP candidate’s rambling “personal manifesto” appears to suggest “compulsory abortion” for Down’s Syndrome foetuses

Update: UKIP have now disowned Clarke and said he will no longer be a candidate for the party.

In a bizarre and rambling 4500+ word “personal manifesto”, a UKIP by-election candidate appears to call for “compulsory abortion” for any foetus which has Down’s Syndrome or Spina Bifida.

Geoffrey Clarke – standing for Gravesham Borough Council in a by-election on Thursday – called for a Government review ofNHS expenditure, which should:

“re-examine the pregnancy abortion time limit. Consider compulsory abortion when the foetus is detected as having Downs, spina bifida or similar syndrome which, if it is born, will render the child a burden on the state as well as on the family.”

However the Independent reports that Clarke has since said “I do not endorse these ideas”. Yet they remain published on his website.

The manifesto also says, amongst other things, that Israel and Iran should both be kicked out of the UN, the Koran should be “updated”, that the government should ban the Burka and that same-sex marriage is an “abhorrence”.

And that’s only the stuff I’ve spotted so far…