The comments were circulated on video that surfaced nine days before the Victorian election

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The Victorian state opposition has disendorsed a Liberal party candidate who appeared in a video that called for a ban on Muslim immigration.

Meralyn Klein, who has been disendorsed nine days out from the election, was running for the party in the marginal seat of Yan Yean, which takes in Melbourne northern-fringe suburbs and towns. Labor MP Danielle Green holds the seat on a margin of 3.7%.

In the video, Klein told Avi Yemini, of the Australian Liberty Alliance, about her experience being attacked by two teenage boys who “were not so happy with two blond women running their own restaurant”.

“Unfortunately, they were of a culture that didn’t accept white Australian women,” she said in the video.

“There are people in this country who are not coming here to get the best out of the country and give the best that they can. I’d like to see us look at immigration,” Klein said in the video before the clip ended with #MUSLIMBAN.

Klein denied being anti-Muslim and said her comments were taken out of context.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Disendorsed Victorian Liberal candidate Meralyn Klein is interviewed by Avi Yemini Photograph: Australian Liberty Alliance

“They cut it, they sliced it and they put it up as their own claiming it was an anti-Muslim video,” she told ABC radio on Thursday.

“Nowhere in anything I said was anti-Muslim.”

Yemini is standing in the Victorian election for the Australian Liberty Alliance. He has previously appeared in videos with the English far-right activist Tommy Robinson, who co-founded the English Defence League.

Yemini told the Herald Sun that the video was shot on Wednesday, and that he edited it to include the fact that her alleged attackers were Muslim, because it was vital to his party’s cause.

“She just didn’t want to say it herself, because she told me that story numerous times for months. That is why I went out and did the video with her,” he said.

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It’s now too late for the electoral commission to take Klein off ballot papers as the Liberal candidate for Yan Yean.

Liberal opposition Leader Matthew Guy said the party asked for Klein’s resignation “within an hour” of finding out.

“Meralyn made a video with some of the material, which was grossly inappropriate and [for] which her resignation was sought,” he told reporters.