--- title: British Politician Suspended For Threatening To Shoot Rival description: A British parliamentary candidate, Robert Blay, has been suspended by his own party for threatening to shoot a rival party's candidate. canonical: https://time.com/3848137/robert-blay-ukip-suspended-threatening-shooting-ranil-jayawardena/ author: Sabrina Toppa article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-05-06T10:20:16.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T08:24:26.848Z article:section: World og:title: This U.K. Legislative Candidate Has Had Racist Death Threats og:description: Rival threatened to "put a bullet between his eyes" og:url: https://time.com/3848137/robert-blay-ukip-suspended-threatening-shooting-ranil-jayawardena/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This U.K. Legislative Candidate Has Had Racist Death Threats twitter:description: Rival threatened to "put a bullet between his eyes" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # British Legislative Candidate Suspended For Threatening to Shoot Rival by [Sabrina Toppa](/author/sabrina-toppa/) ## Sabrina Toppa May 6, 2015 10:20 AM CUT by [Sabrina Toppa](/author/sabrina-toppa/) ## Sabrina Toppa May 6, 2015 10:20 AM CUT A right-wing British parliamentary candidate, Robert Blay, has been [suspended](http://www.bbc.com/news/election-2015-32603463 "undefined") by his own party for threatening to shoot a rival candidate, the BBC [reports](http://www.bbc.com/news/election-2015-england-32595003 "undefined"). His rival is Ranil Jayawardena, a British citizen of Sri Lankan origin. Blay, who was running for the constituency of North East Hampshire, appeared in a video secretly made by a U.K. tabloid, the BBC says. In the video, Blay reportedly said that if Jayawardena ever became Prime Minister, he would “personally put a bullet between his eyes.” He also added that his opponent was “not British enough to be in Parliament.” “I was shocked to hear about these comments and that someone who holds these types of views could have been selected as a UKIP candidate,” Jayawardena [announced](https://www.facebook.com/tellranil/posts/10155431285455161 "undefined") on Facebook Wednesday. “My family believes in hard work. My father came to this country to do just that — never claiming a penny from the state,” Jayawardena added. Blay’s party, the UK Independence Party, apologized to Jayawardena, characterized their candidate’s views as “abhorrent,” and immediately suspended Blay from the organization. [\[_BBC_\]](http://www.bbc.com/news/election-2015-england-32595003 "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3848137/robert-blay-ukip-suspended-threatening-shooting-ranil-jayawardena/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3848137/robert-blay-ukip-suspended-threatening-shooting-ranil-jayawardena/"},"headline":"British Legislative Candidate Suspended For Threatening to Shoot Rival","datePublished":"2015-05-06T10:20:16.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T08:24:26.848Z","description":"Robert Blay said he would \"personally put a bullet\" between the eyes of Ranil Jayawardena","url":"https://time.com/3848137/robert-blay-ukip-suspended-threatening-shooting-ranil-jayawardena/","keywords":["england","Racism","uk","United Kingdom"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sabrina Toppa","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/sabrina-toppa/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3848137/robert-blay-ukip-suspended-threatening-shooting-ranil-jayawardena/","name":"British Legislative Candidate Suspended For Threatening to Shoot Rival"}}]}] ```