The Conservative Party has suspended councillor Ellenor Bland from its election candidate list and from the party pending a full investigation into claims she sent a racist email, a senior party official said.
Liberal Democrat campaigns chair Edward Davey said the email, which contained an 'offensive' poem about illegal immigrants, was 'totally unacceptable' and urged Conservative leader David Cameron to take action against Mrs Bland, a Tory representative on Calne Town Council in Wiltshire who stood for the party in Swansea East at the last General Election.
The poem, entitled 'Illegal Immigrants Poem', describes a migrant coming to Britain 'poor and broke' and making money by claiming welfare benefits before inviting friends from his home country to join him. It ends with the lines: 'We think UK darn good place. Too darn good for the white man race! If they no like us, they can scram. Got lots of room in Pakistan!'
Mrs Bland insisted she had not personally sent the poem but that 'someone else' had used one of her email accounts. She described the poem as 'light-hearted' and said no offence was meant. A Conservative spokesman said the party was looking into the claims and dissociated itself entirely from the sentiments expressed in the poem.
