A candidate in the Stoke byelection has been arrested on suspicion of stirring up racial hatred.



The byelection has been mired in scandal in recent days with Ukip’s candidate failing to turn up for a hustings and Labour’s candidate apologising for posting a series of abusive tweets aimed at women.

Barbara Fielding, 78, who is standing as an independent, was arrested after a complaint about her website, which calls for all immigrants to be repatriated and warns of a “seeping tide of Islamic warriors”. Police seized her mobile phone and computer and later released her on bail until next month.

Fielding said: “I was arrested on suspicion of publishing racial hatred material on my website. Someone must have made a complaint to the police. They took me away and took my files, my paperwork, my mobile phone and my computer. I don’t think I’ve done anything wrong. I’m not worried about this.

“I’m giving information to anybody who wants to read it. I’m not saying people should go out and do something bad to immigrants. I set up my website 18 months ago. I wasn’t involved in politics before, but I just felt politicians had made a mess of things.”

Staffordshire police confirmed that a 78-year-old woman had been arrested under section 19 of the Public Order Act 1986, which makes it an offence to publish or distribute written material which may stir up racial hatred.

The byelection in Stoke next Thursday and a byelection in Copeland on the same day are seen as a key electoral test for the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, whose party is defending both seats.

The Stoke byelection was triggered by the resignation of Tristram Hunt, who left parliament to become the director of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Ukip’s Paul Nuttall was an early favourite to win but his chances have been dented by questions over his residency in the seat, his failure to name all six pottery towns, and his admission that claims on his website about having lost close friends in the Hillsborough disaster were false.

Labour’s candidate Gareth Snell has also proved controversial after he made offensive remarks about panellists on ITV’s Loose Women.

He backed remain in the EU referendum and suggested Brexit was a “massive pile of shit”, while Stoke voted strongly for leave.