UKIP Peterborough council candidate defends tweets after calling Islam ‘Satanic’

Darrell Goodliffe is the UKIP candidate for West ward in today’s Peterborough City Council elections, while he also handles media enquiries for the party’s Peterborough branch.

The Peterborough Telegraph contacted Mr Goodliffe on Wednesday morning shortly after being made aware of the tweets which had been highlighted by another Twitter user, who was critical of their content. The tweets are from 2018 and 2017.

Responding to the PT, Mr Goodliffe said due to recent terrorist atrocities it is “understandable people have concerns about Islam”.

He added: “Rather than labelling people ‘Islamaphobic’ we need to have a rational and open conversation about those concerns so they can be properly addressed.

“As a Christian I believe there is only one true faith and therefore all other faiths naturally are not based on truth.

“However, I believe that people must be free to choose whichever faith they wish and define their own relationship with God and not be under any compulsion to follow any faith other than that which they choose.”

UKIP’s head office said it was forwarding the PT’s request for comment to its press office, but there had been no response at the time of going to press.