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• ‘Builder’ seen begging in the street is Dave O’Rourke from Dublin
• Featured in £1.5million poster campaign against EU immigration
• Gaffe follows suspension of Andre Lampitt who wore builder’s hat in TV ad
• The Zimbabwean branded the Prophet Mohammed a paedophile on Twitter
By MATT CHORLEY, MAILONLINE POLITICAL EDITOR
PUBLISHED: 12:27, 25 April 2014 | UPDATED: 12:48, 25 April 2014
Ukip is battling to rescue its flagship £1.5million ad campaign today, after it emerged a builder who featured in a poster complaing about foreign workers is actually an actor from Ireland.
The gaffe emerged just hours after the party suspended a second man who appeared in an election broadcast video wearing a hard hat for a series of tweets which condemned Islam as ‘evil and branded the Prophet Mohammed a paedophile.
Ukip leader Nigel Farage today admitted ‘something went wrong’ with the party’s vetting system.
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Ukip faced embarrassment today after it emerged the builder in its latest anti-immigration advert was an actor, Dave O’Rourke, who is from Ireland
Ukip leader Nigel Farage admitted something had gone wrong with the party’s vetting system
Never rains then it pours: Ukip leader Nigel Farage admitted something had gone wrong with the party’s vetting system
Still smiling: Nigel Farage is faring well in the polls ahead of the European elections next month
The row comes despite attempts to improve the party’s image and prevent a repeat of last year’s local election campaign which was dominated by controversy about the outburst and behaviour of candidates.
On Tuesday Mr Farage unveiled a series of hard-hitting anti-immigration posters as part of its campaign for the European elections on May 22.
One featured a builder begging on the street with the message: ‘EU policy at work. British workers are hit hard by unlimited cheap labour.’
But today it emerged the man is not a builder at all, but actor Dave O’Rourke from Dublin.
HOW UKIP SAW ITS £1.5MILLION CAMPAIGN RUN INTO TROUBLE
The launch of the anti-immigration poster campaign on Tuesday was supposed to mark the start of a new, more professional era for Ukip.
The award-winning Edinburgh-based advertising agency Family – which has worked for the BBC, Debenhams and the Conservatives – helped produce the campaign funded by ex-Tory donor Paul Sykes.
But critics branded the slogans ‘racist’, even before revelations about the people in the poster and TV adverts plunged the party into turmoil.
Builder posted offensive tweets
Builder in TV advert posts racist tweets
Zimbabwean decorator Andre Lampitt posed in a builder’s hard hat to complain that ‘lads from Eastern Europe’ were undercutting him.
But on Twitter he posted a series of offensive comments, claiming Ed Miliband is ‘not British’, condemned Islam as ‘evil’, branding the Prophet Mohammed a paedophile and saying he wanted Africans to ‘kill themselves off’.
UKIP RESPONSE: Nigel Farage: ‘Repellent was the word we used, and I will stick with that. We have put in place a vetting procedure and something has gone wrong.’
‘Voter’ is Ukip events manager
Lizzy Vaid appears in a full-page photograph as a voter from Devon, but is actually Ukip’s events manager and an assistant to the party leader.
UKIP RESPONSE: Nigel Farage: ‘The fact that Lizzie Laid is half-Indian and works for us is as far as we are concerned a non-issue. Most parties use actors. We use Ukippers.’
‘Jobless builder’ is an Irish actor
Eye-catching poster shows a builder begging on the street with the message: ‘EU policy at work. British workers are hit hard by unlimited cheap labour.’
But he is Dave O’Rourke, an actor from Ireland who moved to Britain 10 years ago.
UKIP RESPONSE: Director of communications Patrick O’Flynn: ‘The vast majority of people used in political poster campaigns are actors. It is totally standard practice.’
On his profile on the acting website StarNow, he boasts of being able to speak in several accents including Irish, South African, English, Scottish and German.
He says: ‘I’m originally from Dublin, Living in the UK 10 years. I’m currently acting full time and looking to build my portfolio.
‘I’m hard working and fully committed to a role and my character to give the best performance I can deliver.’
His CV includes a part as ‘a troubled youth with psychotic tendencies’ in Saltwater, a 2001 Irish drama with In Bruges and Harry Potter star Brendan Gleeson.
He has since taken part in two drama courses in Edinburgh and played an HMRC officer in the 2008 drama Adulthood.
People from Ireland are able to move freely to the UK under the immigration rules which Mr Farage is campaigning against.
To add to the embarrassment, only this week Mr Farage boasted: ‘Most parties use actors. We use Ukippers.’
It followed the revelation that ‘Lizzy Vaid from Devon’ who featured in the party’s manifesto is actually Ukip’s events manager based in London.
Today Ukip director of communications Patrick O’Flynn insisted: ‘The vast majority of people used in political poster campaigns are actors. It is totally standard practice.’
The gaffe comes after Ukip moved to suspend Andre Lampit, a decorator who appeared in a party political broadcast.
Mr Lampitt had previously condemned Mr Miliband as ‘not a real Brit’ and suggested Africans should ‘kill themselves off’.
In a series of posts on Twitter, he said he loathed the charity Oxfam and welcomed Aids outbreaks in Africa, saying: ‘Inner peace will come when Aids does what it should and reduce African density.’
Like Mr Farage, he said he admired Russian leader Vladimir Putin, adding: ‘At least Putin loves his country. David Cameron does not love Britain, he loves the EU.’
Asked about Mr Lampitt’s comments, Mr Farage said: ‘Repellent was the word we used, and I will stick with that. We have got the European elections happening, we have also got local elections and we have got 2,234 candidates standing for Ukip.
‘It’s our biggest ever push in local elections. We have put in place a vetting procedure and something has gone wrong.’
Pressed on whether he viewed Mr Lampitt’s comments as racist, Mr Farage told BBC Breakfast: ‘I think they probably are, yes.’
He added: ‘Someone has made a mistake, so I’m going to have an investigation into this and somebody must be disciplined for this.’
Ukip said it was ‘shocked’ by his views, which will embarrass the party as it prepares for local elections next month – with Mr Lampitt standing as a councillor in Merton, South London.
The builder, who describes himself as ‘born British in Rhodesia’, was one of five supporters hand-picked to appear in a prime-time television campaign starting this week.
He was featured in the broadcast criticising immigration from the EU, saying: ‘Since the lads from Eastern Europe are prepared to work for a lot less than anybody else, I’ve found it a real struggle.’
Yesterday, the party said it was suspending him after discovering he had expressed ‘repellent’ views in a series of potentially unlawful messages on Twitter over recent months.
In one tweet Mr Lampitt claimed that Islam was not a religion and called it an ‘evil organisation respecting a prophet who as a pedo.’[sic]
He added: ‘All Muslims need to leave Europe… or denounce their pathetic satanic religion.’
Zimbabwean decorator Andre Lampitt appeared in the Ukip party political broadcast to complain about the impact of immigration in Britain
UKIP leader Nigel Farage admits: ‘something has gone wrong’
Another message insisted: ‘Most Nigerians are generally bad people… I grew up in Africa and dare anyone to prove me wrong.’
He suggested Africans should be ‘left to ‘kill themselves off’ and suggested people should ‘get over’ slavery, which he said was an ‘act of war’.
‘His racist views might even make the BNP wince with embarrassment’
Tim Farron, Lib Dem president
Condemning the Labour leader, he said: ‘Miliband is not a real Brit. I hope he never gets to be PM! He was only born here.’
In another message, he said Mr Miliband, whose father Ralph was born in Belgium to Polish parents, was ‘Polish, not British’.
He also suggested examination of statistics on rape would reveal a racial bias among attackers, and in another message declared: ‘Enoch Powell was right’.
A Ukip spokesman said: ‘We are deeply shocked that Mr Lampitt has expressed such repellent views.
The UK Independence Party political broadcast
‘His membership of the party has been suspended immediately pending a full disciplinary process.’
However, it was not clear whether Mr Lampitt can be removed from the party’s list of council candidates in Merton, because nominations closed yesterday.
The timing of the row is unfortunate for Mr Farage, who has this week rejected claims from some Labour MPs that his party’s latest election billboards on immigration are racist.
Ukip had suggested its candidates would be put through more rigorous checks following a series of controversies over the views of some on race, gay marriage and other issues.
It faces questions about how it failed to check messages posted over several months and available for all to see on Mr Lampitt’s Twitter page.
Last night his account appeared to have been deleted and he could not be reached.
Lib Dem president Tim Farron said: ‘I cannot believe Ukip did not check the comments of this man before they used him in their broadcast.
The row is a blow for Ukip leader Nigel Farage, who spent the day campaigning in Knutsford in Cheshire
‘His racist views might even make the BNP wince with embarrassment. A week after the French National Front opened their arms to Ukip, with comments like these it’s easy to see why they did.
‘Ukip might wrap themselves in the flag, but these comments are deeply offensive to anyone with decent British values.’
‘We are deeply shocked that Mr Lampitt has expressed such repellent views’
Ukip spokesman
Mr Farage promised to eliminate ‘Walter Mittys’ from his candidate list after Ukip defence spokesman Godfrey Bloom – one of his closest allies – quit following outbursts in which he described foreign nations as ‘Bongo Bongo Land’ and women as ‘sluts’.
The Ukip leader said he would ensure only ‘reliable, steady, solid people’ could run for election.
Labour’s Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper described Mr Lampitt’s tweets as nasty and divisive.
She said on Twitter: ‘Appalling tweets from Ukip member chosen to front campaign. Ukip should reflect very carefully on the way they encourage nasty divisive views.’
This staggeringly unprofessional behaviour from UKIP and the endless repetition of this sort of incompetence and the serial examples of financial profligacy and self serving dishonesty and such events as paying wives and mistresses wityh tax payers money and holding overseas bank accounts to seemingly avoid the taxes of Britain and on and on with candidates and councillors embroilled in racism and internal squabbling it is little wonder the British public have not entrusted UKIP with a role in domestic politics.
Little wonder that after 21 years of such behaviour UKIP still has no MPs and has never even come close to having a UKIP MP and has so very few Councillors yet is seen as an appropriate dustbin of an unsavoury nature for protesters to use as a dustbin to register their opprobrium at the body politic in the politics of the EU which are seen as largely irrelevant in Britain where the electorate realise there is no value in MEPs and where there is a near total lack of any basic concepts of democracy.
It would seem that the more odious the dustbin the more effective it is to show ones contempt at politicians!
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Greg Lance - Watkins (Greg_L-W)
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