London mayoral candidate under fire for views on Hindus, Muslims

The candidate selected by Britain's ruling Conservative Party to contest against London Mayor Sadiq Khan in the 2020 mayoral elections on Wednesday came under fire for the views he expressed 13 years ago about Hindus and Muslims.

Shaun Bailey had written a pamphlet for the Centre for Policy Studies back in 2005 in which he lamented Hindu and Muslim influences on the cultural landscape of Britain.

"You bring your children to school and they learn far more about Diwali than Christmas," he wrote in the pamphlet titled 'No Man's Land'.

Bailey, a member of the London Assembly, also seemed to be confused about the difference between Hindu with Hindi in the controversial document he had put together as a researcher with the London-based think tank.

"I speak to the people who are from Brent [north-west London] and they've been having Muslim and Hindi days off. What it does is rob Britain of its community. Without our community we slip into a crime-riddled cesspool," he wrote.

The central theme of the pamphlet seemed to reflect his views that Christianity was being sidelined in the UK as a result of multiculturalism.

"There are a lot of really good things about Britain as a place and British people as a body. But by removing the religion that British people generally take to, by removing the ethics that generally go with it, we've allowed people to come to Britain and bring their culture, their country and any problems they might have, with them," he wrote.

The MP, who is black, added: "Within the black community it is not such a bad thing because we've shared a religion and in many cases a language.

"It's far easier for black people to integrate. How we arrived here is different. If you talk to old black people, they will say they have been invited here by the Queen. They absolutely do not consider themselves refugees or immigrants."