Election 2019: Conservative Candidate Suspended in Aberdeen Target Seat

The candidate fielded by the Conservative party for Aberdeen North, Ryan Houghton, has been suspended by the party after comments he made in an online forum surfaced.

The Councillor for George Street and the Harbour is accused of making homophobic, anti-semitic and Islamophobic remarks following the publication of an article in The National on Monday which uncovered posts from 2012 in which he said he "didn't know how homosexuality was good for the human race" and that the Holocaust was "exaggerated" in a lengthy post.

On Monday, the party suspended Houghton pending further investigation, meaning it is unconfirmed whether he will stand for the Conservatives in the Aberdeen North constituency against the SNP's Kirsty Blackman, who currently holds the only SNP seat in Aberdeen.

Aberdeen North is one of the Tories' target seats for this general election, needing a 9% swing from the 2017 result. Ryan Houghton coming under this level of scrutiny and controversy this early on in the race now makes unseating the SNP's former depute leader at Westminster, who has held the seat for the past two elections, a far bigger challenge for the Tories.

Taking to Twitter to respond to the allegations, Houghton said:

"At the age of 20 on an online forum, I took part in a range of political discussions. These included terrorism, LGBT and anti-semitism.

"In one of these threads started by another member of the forum there was a conversation about freedom of speech. There then followed a discussion about the Holocaust denier and now disgraced historian David Irving started by other members".

Mr. Houghton is accused of defending the views of Irving, an author disgraced following his denial of the holocaust.

He said: "I was not defending the views of David Irving and I strongly opposed holocaust denial.

"I will fully cooperate with the investigation by the party and look forward to clearing my name".