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Friday, 25 April 2008 BNP do not deny misleading voters in Carmarthenshireby: Searchlight Cymru Call for BNP candidate to stand downApr 25 2008 by Matt Withers, Media Wales CAMPAIGNERS have challenged a British National Party candidate in next week's local elections to prove a series of extreme claims made in a campaign leaflet - or stand down. Kevin Edwards, who is standing for the BNP in Carmarthenshire next Thursday has sent voters a glossy pamphlet which lists a number of allegations which appear to have no basis in fact, claims Searchlight Cymru. Mr Edwards, standing in the Penygroes ward of the county, claims "homosexuality is being taught" to four-year-olds in Welsh schools and soldiers are being ordered to remove uniforms in hospital in order not to offend Muslims. He also claims all asylum seekers coming to the UK are handed cheques by the Government to buy a car. Searchlight Cymru, a group which campaigns against facism and racism, has called on Mr Edwards to substantiate his claims or pull out of the running for misleading voters. Searchlight Cymru secretary Darren Dupre said: "We were a bit bemused by such claims, but were happy to give Mr Edwards the benefit of the doubt, so checked. We can find no evidence of his claims anywhere. We know of an unsubstantiated newspaper report of Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham, but that has been disproved some time ago. "We also asked the NUT [National Union of Teachers] about the subjects taught to four-year-olds. To be honest, they were most bemused about Mr Edwards' claims. "As Mr Edwards obviously knows something that no-one else knows, then we ask that he, like any candidate, can back up claims with some facts. If he cannot substantiate such inflammatory claims, then we would expect him to do the honourable thing and resign his candidacy." Mr Edwards is already set to become a member of Llandybie Community Council in Carmarthenshire on May 6, having been elected unopposed. It will make the 47-year-old, a sales manager for an environmental services company, the BNP's first South Wales councillor - it already has a number of town and community councillors in North Wales. But a number of his claims do appear to be untrue. No school in Wales teaches homosexuality to four-year-olds and a Welsh Assembly Government spokesman said: "There is nothing in the curriculum for three-to-seven-year olds in Wales that relates to sexual orientation." There is also no obligation on armed forces personnel to remove uniforms in hospital. The story originated following a newspaper report of a paratrooper wounded in Afghanistan being threatened by a Muslim visitor to Birmingham's Selly Oak Hospital two years ago, but a report later discovered the story was an urban myth. There is no record of any asylum seeker in Britain being given a cheque to buy a car. To see the full Western Mail story, please go to: http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/news/wales-news/2008/04/25/call-for-bnp-candidate-to-stand-down-91466-20817537/
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