Former police inspector Richard Hendron standing for Brentford and Isleworth
Richard Hendron, the UKIP candidate for the Brentford and Isleworth constituency in the General Election, has said his party is neither homophobic nor racist.
The 34-year old former police officer from Ealing, who is gay, said he had been a victim of homophobia but not within the party. In an interview with Brentford TV Richard Hendron said there were no more "fruitcakes" in the party than there were in any of the other parties, it was just that the media was focused on UKIP.
Mr. Hendron, who was educated at Gunnersbury School and who is now working as a criminal barrister, is hoping to pick up votes from disaffected Conservatives in a marginal constituency where sitting MP Mary Macleod currently holds a slim majority of around 2,000 votes.
A former Conservative, who assisted Oliver Letwin in his successful 2010 election campaign, he switched parties two years ago saying the Tories had lost sight of their policies. He agreed with the UKIP position on immigration and said when he was with the Met, he saw on a daily basis how the huge demand for schools, housing and hospitals was caused by uncontrolled immigration.
He also believes there are too many PCSOs in the police force and says he has an open mind on a third runway for Heathrow. He proposes rehabilitation and community service to replace short-term prison sentences, and is in favour of scrapping charges for hospital parking.
Mr. Hendron said he was fed up with how the political candidates, who had party backing and press officers and "dodged questions", with their "carefully managed campaigns". He criticised Mary Macleod's record in the constituency saying that her record shows that "she doesn't care for the local areas".
The election was being portrayed as a "two horse race" and this was not true he said. He challenged both Ruth Cadbury and Mary Macleod as well as all other candidates to meet up in public on a weekly basis where both issues of importance to Brentford & Isleworth as well as of national importance, could be debated in public.
March 12, 2015