UKIP poster creates a stir

All four candidates in yesterday’s and crime commissioner poll vowed to make tackling child sex exploitation their top priority, but UKIP candidate Jack Clarkson raised the stakes with the controversial billboard design.

The poster, launched in Rotherham on Saturday, features a teenage girl with the line: “There are 1,400 reasons why you should not trust Labour again”, referring to the 1,400 children Prof Alexis Jay estimated in her August report had been abuse victims in the town between 1997 and 2013.

Vote-counting following yesterday’s election is due to start in Barnsley this morning.

Barnsley MP Dan Jarvis accused UKIP of a “cynical and deliberate” exploitation the victims with their poster, saying it “marks a new and unacceptable low in their recent campaign activity”

Wentworth and Dearne MP John Healey condemned the billboard as “sickening” and accused UKIP of “seeking to exploit the terrible suffering of victims of child sexual abuse for their own political ends”.

He added: “Local UKIP politicians have previously denied they planned to do anything of the kind, yet they’ve gone ahead with these disgusting posters, which may be hugely distressing for the victims and their families.

“Some have rightly condemned UKIP for cynically exploiting them in this way.

“As a town we must pull together to make sure that victims of grooming now get the full protection, support and justice they need.”

But Mr Clarkson said: “It is a sad fact that the people have been let down by the Labour Party across South Yorkshire.

“Politicians, both at the Town Halls and in uniform for years, were more worried about fashionable ideas than about protecting our young in their own towns and streets”.

Yorkshire MEP Jane Collins, who will stand in Rotherham in next year’s general election, said: “These posters are certainly hard-hitting, but they bring home a simple truth, a truth that is spoken in far harsher terms than this in the shops, bars, and clubs across the region.”

Mr Clarkson was up against Labour’s Dr Alan Billings, the English Democrats David Allen and Conservative Ian Walker in the election.

We asked visitors to the Advertiser website if they approved of the child abuse-themed poster being used by UKIP in the police and crime commissioner election?

The results were as follows:

Yes, they are right to focus on the big issue which matters most to many South Yorkshire voters — 94.4 per cent.

No, it is in poor taste to exploit the suffering of child abuse victims for political gain — 5.6 per cent.

What do you think of the UKIP posters? Log on to rotherhamadvertiser.co.uk to leave a comment, have your say on our Rotherham Tiser Facebook page, Tweet @rotherhamtise, email [email protected] or write to the address on page 10.