Introducting Dr Teck Khong, Ukip's candidate for Harborough

On Sunday Ukip announced they would be standing a candidate in the Harborough constituency as the new Conservative candidate, Neil O'Brien, is a "big Remainer".

Today they named that candidate: Dr Teck Khong.

This came as something of a surprise as he was until today a Conservative member of Oadby and Wigston Borough Council. He also fought Bradford North for the Tories at the 2005 general election and Twitter gossip is that he was disappointed not to be allowed to fight a seat this time.

I don't know if he had his eye on Harborough, but because of the snap election a shortlist of three outside names was imposed on the constituency party by the national Conservative Party.

There is an idiosyncratic biography on his website, but I decided to dig a little deeper.

Dr Khong's attendance record at Oadby and Wigston is not impressive.

More worrying is this article on Tell MAMA from last year:

t has been brought to our attention that the Conservative Councillor, Cllr Dr Teck Khong, has an interesting network of friends on social media. Of particular interest has been the fact that he is a serving councillor on Oadby and Wigston Borough Council in Leicestershire. 

He also lists his profession as a General Practitioner in his register of interests and also is a Board member on the Governing Body of Leicester City’s Clinical Commissioning Group. He also lists an interest in a company called Healthwebwide Limited, which is also listed in his register of interests. 

So far so good. Yet, a look at the social media activity of Cllr Khong leaves much to be desired in the comments that he seems to ‘like’.

And the article goes on to list a number of anti-Muslim tweets that he has liked on Twitter.

People like tweets for all sorts of reasons, but a post on Thoughts of a Leicester Socialist gives more cause for concern.

It says of Dr Khong:

In September 2008 he felt moved to leave positive comments under a bile-filled article titled “How modern Islam has made UK citizens homeless in their own homes.” 

This article warned that Britain was on the way into turning into “some sort of semi-Islamic republic”; and the bigoted author made clear that: “Unlike other valuable and rich cultures and religions that integrate successfully, modern Islam seems steadfast in its principles of war and violence.” 

Sympathising with the general thrust of the article Dr Zhong (sic) commented: 

“What saddens me and many with similar historical backgrounds is the lack of allegiance to the adopted home with newcomers who have been attracted to these shores in the first instance. Even worse is to contemplate the destruction of the very host that offers a haven of hope. ‘When in Rome…’ seems to have slipped into oblivion.”

That article was on Conservative Home and you will find three comments on it from Dr Khong.

The Economic Voice quotes an ecstatic Paul Nuttall:

"That Tech has chosen to support UKIP at this time shows clearly that the scales are beginning to fall from the eyes of Tories about the vacuum where a serious Brexit policy lies in Theresa May's Conservative Party"

But the truth is that today Ukip is attracting people who are prejudiced against Muslims and precious few others.