UKIP leadership candidate Raheem Kassam, who has earned the backing of the party’s biggest donor, has previously made a string of shocking anti-trans comments, PinkNews can reveal.

The pro-Brexit UK Independence Party is currently gearing up for its second leadership election of the year, after leader Diane James stood down after 18 days.

The party has been in a state of turmoil after frontrunner Steven Woolfe quit the party altogether – with Parliamentary spokesperson Suzanne Evans, former deputy Paul Nuttall, and right-wing Breitbart UK editor Raheem Kassam currently the frontrunners.

Mr Kassam, a former aide to Nigel Farage, has earned the backing of UKIP’s largest donor Aaron Banks.

However, concerns have been raised within the party about Mr Kassam’s conduct.

PinkNews found tweets sent by Mr Kassa, over several years in which he fumes about trans people.

In November 2015, he tweeted: “Also anyone see that advert after #bbcqt about “gender fluidity”? How much tranny-pushing does the BBC want to do? Radio 4, QT, BBC3, web…”

In April this year, when a transgender non-binary teen spoke to Barack Obama, he said: “Muslim Pakistani girl is ‘coming out’ to Obama as ‘transgender’ live now. Demands Obama acknowledge ‘non binary’ people”.

When someone asked why he had referred to the teen as a girl, he responded: “You ain’t gonna bully me into using tranny terms, love. Move along. “

In 2014, when a convicted murderer came out as trans, he wrote: “Ah yes, the ‘tranny defence’.”

In another 2016 tweet, responding to exercise guidelines, he claimed the NHS “wants to turn me into a teetotal tranny”.



Earlier this month, Mr Kassam denied he was responsible for former leader Nigel Farage’s repeated criticism of HIV patients, despite working as his key adviser at the time.

When asked which kinds of people should be allowed to enter the UK in 2014, Mr Farage said: “People who do not have HIV, to be frank. That’s a good start.”

Later, during the 2015 election debates, Farage claimed the UK is ‘incapable’ of treating people with HIV because of immigration, citing the high cost of HIV treatment.

Kassam insisted: “It wasn’t me…. Nigel Farage got up on stage and unbeknownst to any of us, he made this statement.”

Writing for Breitbart UK, Kassam has published a multitude of stories about the stance of Islam on LGBT rights – despite his own controversial views on LGBT issues.

Earlier this year Mr Kassam was linked to a petition to protest “insidious political correctness” in UKIP after the suspension of a candidate who advocates ‘gay cure’ therapy.

The petition claimed it was written by anonymous ‘UKIP Members and Supporters for Free-Speech’ – but it was first circulated on social media by Mr Kassam, who also took to Breitbart to promote it.

Earlier this year Kassam bemoaned that former Prime Minister David Cameron’s legacy is “Freeing Terrorists And Gay Marriage”.

When a UKIP councillor suggested the party should pursue a more moderate approach on LGBT issues earlier this summer, Kassam claimed she wanted “Britons be ‘re-educated’ towards left-wing, LGBT, identity politics.”

Mocking a Pride-decorated police car last year, he wrote: “Would they ‘black up’ the car for a Black Power march? Would they daub a police car in crescents and stars for Ramadan? Would they (and I kind of don’t want the answer to this one) stick little yellow stars all over a blue patrol car to mark the European referendum? No? So why a gay police car then?”