My wife and I run a traditional sweet shop in Horwich Town centre.

We employ a young apprentice with a view to teaching him the trade, part of which is to look after a wide variety of customers and their needs. One such encounter was of a quite unexpected nature.

Having looked around the shop, one man exploded into a rage at our employee. Not because the assistant had done anything wrong but because in his words, “you serve terrorists here”!

He was refereeing to a selection of the stock which displayed the “Halal” sign. It seems, according to him, that anyone requiring Halal food was a terrorist.

We used to have a shop in Daubhill, which has a significant Muslim population. In that area it was good customer care to stock Halal sweets due to the requirements of the Muslim faith.

When we reduced our business to the original Horwich shop, a number of Bolton customers continued to deal with us, so we continued to label appropriate stock for their benefit.

The vast majority of the Asian community I found to be honest, hard-working people with a genuine commitment to family and faith.

All of society’s groups have a tiny minority of bad people. I have a number of good friends from the Asian community who are trustworthy and honourable people.

Such views, mentioned earlier, are completely unacceptable. I say this, as a candidate for UKIP in the forthcoming Bolton elections. Racist views are sometime attributed to UKIP by our challengers, but I can say that my views and not those of the aforementioned customer are consistent with the true policies of my party.

Yes, like each of the other parties, we have a tiny selection of Idiots who let us down, but the truth is that we are a party ready to serve all, regardless of race, creed or colour.

Peter McGeehan UKIP Candidate for Horwich North East and Claypool