News of her comments sparked outrage from black and ethnic minority groups and others

The chief executive of Women’s Aid, Katie Ghose, is stepping down from the domestic abuse charity after complaints from black and minority ethnic women’s refuges about her public praise for Ukip.

London Black Women’s Project wrote to Women’s Aid this month calling on the charity to remove Ghose from her post after video footage was circulated on Twitter showing her praising Ukip’s “passion for a new way of doing politics”, referring to Douglas Carswell as “an outstanding MP” and lauding Nigel Farage.

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Several other groups also expressed anger at Ghose’s comments, made at the Ukip annual conference in September 2015 when she was the chief executive of the Electoral Reform Society, demanding that Women’s Aid take action because they considered her views on race made her “untenable as a CEO of Women’s Aid”.

That same month at a fringe event organised by the society at the party’s conference in Doncaster, the Electoral Reform Society hosted the former Mail Online columnist Katie Hopkins who said she “wouldn’t mind” if the House of Lords was gassed. Ghose does not appear to intervene or challenge Hopkins about her remarks in the video.

Amrit Wilson, former board member of Imkaan, a Black, South Asian and minority ethnic women’s organisation dedicated to combating violence against women, who shared the videos on Twitter, welcomed Ghose’s departure from Women’s Aid.

She said: “I welcome it but Women’s Aid needs to question why this happened and make sure that future appointments are not only carefully vetted but given to people with substantial experience of the women’s sector.”

Aaliyah Davis, of the direct action group Sisters Uncut, said she felt that although Ghose was acting in her capacity as the chief executive of the Electoral Reform Society at the Ukip conference, her praise for the party had “overstepped the mark”.

“We were deeply concerned at the kind of language she was using. It felt like she was trying to garner support from Ukip. I and other members of Sisters Uncut feel she overstepped the mark saying that Ukip had been robbed and rightly there should be more Ukip MPs and it flies in the face of her position at Women’s Aid.”

Davis said Ukip’s xenophobia and racism meant that Ghose’s behaviour was “shocking”, considering she would be appointed to lead the UK’s biggest domestic violence charity that has to represent migrant women and BAME women. “She didn’t need to say these things. It’s surprising this didn’t come up in the recruitment process – it feels like feminism has taken a back seat.”

In a statement, Women’s Aid said Ghose was leaving “by mutual agreement with the charity’s board.

It added: “Katie, as chief executive, has led Women’s Aid through a period of growth in our profile, impact and partnerships. She has achieved a huge amount in her time with us and brought her considerable leadership abilities to achieve influence in Whitehall and Westminster. The trustees thank her for her commitment, hard work and professionalism and wish her the best for the future.”

The charity said it could not comment further for legal reasons.