Simon Danczuk angry at UKIP candidate's criticism of him in local mosque

Mohammed Masud, the UKIP parliamentary candidate for Rochdale, reportedly called current MP Simon Danczuk “inept” and “not good enough” at a local mosque on Friday (30 January).

It is understood that when addressing the congregation at the mosque Mr Masud highlighted what he described as failures of local services and said that Mr Danczuk is “not up to the job”.

A member of the congregation shouted that UKIP is a racist party, which Mr Masud disputed. He was then asked to leave or left of his own volition, depending on which version of events you believe!

A UKIP spokesman said: "Mohammed Masud the UKIP PPC, was invited to address the congregation before Friday prayers, he did so and made some comments about failures of local services and suggested that the sitting member [Simon Danczuk] was not up to the job.

"Someone - we know not who - shouted 'UKIP are f….ing racists'.

"Mr Masud disputed this, but as it was now one o'clock the microphone was handed to the Imam and prayers commenced.

"At the end of which, the Imam denounced bad language both within the mosque and without and suggested that people should be able to discuss things without bad language.

"At no point was Mr Masud abusive, he was not thrown out and did not interrupt prayers."

Responding to the incident, Mr Danczuk said: "His campaign hasn't even got started and he's already been thrown out of a mosque for upsetting local people. If Masud carries on like this he'll be chased out of town before polling day."