Butlin's Embroiled In Racism Row Over Wrestling Match Featuring "Muslim Baddie"

    "I felt I was dropped in the middle of a Britain First rally," an outraged father said.

    Butlin's has apologised after its Skegness holiday park put on a wrestling match between Tony Spitfire, a fictional "English hero" character, and Hakim, a fictional Muslim character, who was "the baddie".

    Christian Cerisola, who was holidaying with his family on Saturday, tweeted about the incident after he took his two young daughters to see the match and was left shocked by the "ill-judged" family entertainment.

    "The first wrestler was Hakim with a flag with Arabic-style writing. His opponent was Tony Spitfire – I looked at my wife and grimaced," he told BuzzFeed News.

    "In the climate we're in, I thought, that's awkward."

    The crowd were encouraged to boo Hakim and cheer for Tony, who was shouting "England! England!" and wearing union jack shorts, Cerisola said.

    A horrific race hate-filled ten minutes of everything wrong on racial stereotypes. How did this get past the sense checkers @Butlins?

    I felt I was dropped into the middle of a Britain First rally. Out came 'Hakim'. The Islamic flag waving baddie. 'BOOOOO', we were told.

    "I have a pretty broad upbringing and I get that wrestling needs a 'goodie' and a 'baddie' but in the current climate, I thought this should have been stopped," he added.

    Cerisola said he was not easily offended but felt compelled to complain about the match.

    "Within a couple of hours I'd got a call [from a manager] who said, 'We are as horrified as you and something has gone wrong – that is not what we signed off,'" he said.

    Butlin's has apologised over the incident and said: "It will not happen again."

    "We are very concerned to hear about the incident that occurred [and have] since spoken to him [Cerisola] to assure him this is a matter we are investigating and to apologise for the distress caused," a spokeswoman said.

    "Saturday's wrestling show was a deviation from the agreed content, and we are conducting a full review with our third-party supplier as to why this happened.

    "We would like to assure guests that this was a very unfortunate one-off which we find completely unacceptable, and is totally contrary to Butlin's values."

    Brian Dixon, managing director of All-Star Wrestling, the supplier, said: "We regret this clear error of judgment, as well as the obvious offence and upset caused.

    "We wish to apologise to Butlin's and their guests, and stress that this will not happen again."