A UKIP candidate standing in this week’s local elections is a convicted football hooligan.
Paul Martin got six months’ jail for affray and an eight-year match ban over his role in a 2008 clash between 100 Coventry and Leicester fans ahead of a game.
Mr Martin is standing for UKIP in Snibston South to join North West Leicestershire District Council and said he admitted his conviction to the party.
He said: “I made one mistake in my life. I went through the process and was approved.”
“I declared that on my application to be a potential UKIP candidate and I passed, so what can I do?
“I made an error in my life, mate, one error. I hold my hand up. What do you want me to say, thatI regret what happened… wrong place wrong time.”
(Image: Getty)
But David Lawrence of Hope Not Hate said: “Can UKIP leader Gerard Batten stoop any lower with candidates?
“The people of Britain deserve better than these thugs being put forward by a party too extreme even for Nigel Farage, a party which under Batten has even offered cut-price memberships to hooligan-led street movements.
“It looks completely shambolic and our polling suggests UKIP is facing collapse at the Euro elections later this month.”
UKIP did not respond to a request for comment.
