Guido knows they were wrong in Australia, but this one feels like a stretch…
Gerard Batten’s alt-right UKIP rump has lost yet more MEPs, with UKIP’s three remaining female MEPs – Margot Parker, Jill Seymour and Jane Collins – all defecting to Nigel Farage’s new Brexit Party after Batten defended his candidate Carl Benjamin’s rape comments on Marr yesterday. By Guido’s count Batten’s UKIP now has just four of 24 MEPs elected in 2014 left, the Brexit Party is up to 11…
A taste of things to come for MPs if they vote to extend Brexit – Nigel Farage’s new Brexit Party now officially has more MEPs than UKIP. Eight UK MEPs now sit in Farage’s Brexit Party – Tim Aker, Jonathan Bullock, David Coburn, Bill Etheridge, Nathan Gill, Paul Nuttall, Julia Reid and Farage himself, ahead of Gerard Batten’s fringe UKIP rump of seven. Bullock says the Brexit Party will “fully mobilise” to take on the Tories at any subsequent European or General election if the Tories “rat” on their manifesto commitment to leave by 29 March. The votes for both parties will soar if the UK is forced into the humiliation of another European Parliament election…
The EU is already braced for a major surge in support for Eurosceptic parties in May’s elections – the last thing they want is for them to be a Brexit flashpoint as well. MPs who think they can force a Brexit delay simply by passing a few votes in Parliament may be in for a nasty surprise…
The defection of the three Tory MPs to The Independents Group today has seen an outpouring of comments ranging from sadness to… sadness from their former Tory colleagues. Theresa May is “saddened”, David Cameron is “sad”, Claire Perry is “extremely sad”. All get thanks for their “dedicated service”, with the door being left open for them to return if they change their mind…
So presumably it was the same outpouring of thanks, hugs and condolences all round when Douglas Carswell and Mark Reckless left for UKIP in 2014? Don’t be silly…
David Cameron branded Reckless’s decision “senseless and counter-productive” and accused Carswell of helping Labour. Carswell was accused of “betrayal”, “petulance” and “political vanity” by Tory MPs while Reckless was even sued by his former local party. All topped off with Claire “Brexit Jihadis” Perry’s ever classy “Don’t let the door hit your fat arse as you leave”…
UKIP Director and NEC Member Katie Fanning has published a bizarre post on her personal Facebook profile, claiming that “a secret court is trying to lock me away like Melanie Shaw.” Shaw is a name often referenced by Tommy Robinson supporters who promote a bonkers conspiracy theory that she has been locked up by the Government for speaking out against child abuse.
While Fanning’s vague post reads like the ramblings of a loon, from what Guido can make out it could well be similar to the situation other alt-right British figures have fallen into in recent years – she probably attempted to report on criminal proceedings whilst reporting restrictions were in place. UKIP moving even further into the mad conspiracy-laden world of Tommy Robinson…
UKIP leader Gerard Batten and two other UKIP MEPs (Stuart Agnew and Jane Collins) have joined Marine Le Pen’s ENF group in the European Parliament. Batten had resigned from Farage’s more moderate EFDD group in December to sit as an independent. The far right ENF group was founded in 2014 following discussions between Marine Le Pen and Geert Wilders, and consists of a number of quasi-fascist parties across Europe. Guido predicted this move a month ago…
Guido hears whispers of a mass exodus of UKIP MEPs planned for Monday. As few as two MEPs (Stuart Agnew and Mike Hookem) could stay with Tommy Robinson-obsessed UKIP leader Gerard Batten, while the rest join a new Farage-led national group within the pan-European EFDD group – also led by Farage. Which Batten has just quit…
Expected to follow the fifteen UKIP MEPs who have already quit are: Tim Aker, Jonathan Bullock, Jane Collins, Ray Finch, Margot Parker, Julia Reid, and Jill Seymour. Could this be the beginning of a new pro-Brexit party, led again by Nigel?
Former Leader Paul Nuttall has, after “much soul-searching,” followed Patrick O’Flynn, Nigel Farage, and Nathan Gill out the door. The party is now left with just 9 of the 24 MEPs it elected in in 2014. At this rate wacko leader Gerard Batten will be in a party of one by Christmas.
Read his full statement here…
“After much soul-searching over the past week, I have concluded that I must, as of today, resign as a member of Ukip. I do this with an immense amount of reluctance and regret, as I have worked tirelessly for the party for the past fourteen years.
Stating ‘I have not left UKIP, UKIP has left me’, Welsh UKIP MEP Nathan Gill has left the party over its association with Tommy Robinson. His resignation means that UKIP has now lost 13 of the 24 MEPs it elected in 2014.
“I can no longer belong to a party that has switched its primary focus from Brexit, to a foolish pursuit against Islam and the promotion of Tommy Robinson (who is neither a Brexiteer, nor a member of UKIP.)
UKIP has betrayed Its members, Brexiteers and the British people.”
Read his full statement here…
Above is the photo that was the last straw for Nigel Farage:
Tommy Robinson can be seen seated beside Gerard Batten. Next to Robinson is a man called Daniel Thompson, a convicted armed kidnapper. There are other pretty unsavoury-looking characters dotted around the room. These are the people organising the ‘Brexit’ march that is now advertised on the UKIP website. My heart sinks as I reflect on the idea that they may be seen by some as representative of the cause for which I have campaigned for so much of my adult life.
His Telegraph article lambasts Gerard Batten for being obsessed with Islam and Tommy Robinson. He concludes
We are now just a few days away from the most ill-judged political event I have ever been aware of in British politics. The very idea of Tommy Robinson being at the centre of the Brexit debate is too awful to contemplate. And so, with a heavy heart, and after all my years of devotion to the party, I am leaving UKIP today. There is a huge space for a Brexit party in British politics, but it won’t be filled by UKIP.
Hard to disagree.
Former UKIP Deputy Chair, manifesto writer, and leadership candidate Suzanne Evans has become the latest big name to abandon the rapidly disintegrating party, declaring that “there is no hope left.” This follows another big name kipper, Patrick O’Flynn resigning from the party last week. Pressure will be now mounting on Nigel Farage, who told Talk Radio this morning that he is “thinking long and hard” about whether to stay in the party…
Read Suzanne’s statement in full:
UKIP’s Patrick O’Flynn has quits his party over Gerard Batten’s embrace of Tommy Robinson… and joined the rump SDP. Former Political Editor of the Daily Express, O’Flynn was quite a coup for Farage’s UKIP when he joined the party in 2014. He now becomes the third elected official of the party, as it already has two town councillors. Will the last MEP to leave UKIP please turn out the lights…
Brexodus: UKIP have now lost 10 of the 24 MEPs elected in 2014… Jonathan Arnott, Janice Atkinson, Amjad Bashir, James Carver, William Dartmouth, Roger Helmer, Bill Etheridge, Diane James, Patrick O’Flynn, and Steven Woolfe.
UPDATE: Guido has been reminded of what O’Flynn said in interview with BrexitCentral in February 2017…
“He [Farage] seems to be worried people like me are crypto-SDP [supporters] and he couldn’t be more wrong. But we want to be a mainstream party, that’s how you win elections.”
It seems as if Farage was right after all..!
h/t: David Scullion
UPDATE II: The SDP have been in touch to tell Guido they are “delighted” by this defection and that today is “a great day for social democracy.”
“The SDP is delighted that Patrick O’Flynn MEP has joined the party. It’s a great day for the resurgent SDP and a great day for social democracy. We believe that millions of British people will support the communitarian approach to politics in our New Declaration.”
“Our aim is to provide a political home to all social democrats who seek a stronger more capable state along with greater individual responsibility, trust and social solidarity. We have consistently supported the nation-state as the upper limit – and the defining unit – of democracy. The SDP believes the 2016 referendum vote must be respected.”
UKIP’s astute new leader has fallen for joke twitter account called “GuardianMemeWin“. The account describes itself as “the most insufferable newspaper parody account ever” in its twitter bio. Batten’s analysis was retweeted by the official UKIP twitter account…
Beleaguered Batten is not the only one to have fallen foul of a fake account. Yesterday evening CCHQ retweeted a fake, unverified Philip Hammond account. It even spelled his first name incorrectly…
After making that mistake too many times Guido tends to block parody accounts…
UKIP MEP Jonathan Bullock reports excitedly that “The union flag now flies above the British residency in Brussels” following his campaign to get the flag put back up after it was mysteriously removed. In fact a member of staff in the residency was so pleased the flag was back up that they offered to take the photo. To save their foreign office career Guido will not reveal who it was. You can however discount regular occupant Olly Robbins…
Jonathan hopes: “Now that the flag is restored perhaps we can see a sound Brexit policy restored to deliver what the people voted for over two years ago.” Steady on Jonathan, it has taken weeks just to get them to fly the flag…
The exodus of UKIP MEPs is starting to turn from a trickle into a flood with Bill Etheridge becoming the latest Kipper to quit the party in protest at Gerard Batten’s leadership.
Etheridge accused Batten of allowing his “personal obsessions” to change the party “beyond all recognition” in a stinging resignation statement:
“The changes you have made since becoming leader have changed the party beyond all recognition. You have allowed your personal obsessions free reign. The party is now seen by large swathes of the British public as a vehicle for hate towards Muslims and the Gay community…”
Batten has bitten back in characteristic style:
“I hope that Mr Etheridge will do the decent and honourable thing and resign his seat, thereby handing it back to UKIP to which it morally belongs.
“I am sure the loss of his salary, daily allowance, and pension rights would be a small price to pay for a man of principle such as he.
“It was a great pity that Mr Etheridge was unable to make it to the UKIP Conference in Birmingham last month where he could have witnessed the party members fully behind my leadership – the people who put him in the seat he currently holds by dint of their efforts and donations.”
At this rate, will Batten even have any UKIP MEPs left by the time Britain leaves the EU next March?
William Dartmouth MEP has written to UKIP leader Gerrard Batten resigning his position from the party, which he has represented in the European Parliament since 2009. In an explosive letter he eviscerates Batten for the way in which he has “hi-jacked” the party, and declares that he will continue to sit as an independent MEP.
“At a time when our founding cause of leaving the EU is at risk, you have chosen instead to campaign against Islam as a religion… That is not the UKIP that I joined… To put it simply, you have hi-jacked the UK Independence Party.”
Dartmouth is a hereditary peer who sat in the Lords until Blair’s reforms came into effect in 1999. He isn’t the first UKIP MEP to step back from Batten’s party, and he probably won’t be the last…
UPDATE: Batten hits back…
Dear Lord Dartmouth,
Thank you for your letter of resignation. I have received this without regret, and I am sure that my relief in receiving it exceeds your relief in sending it.
UKIP leader Gerard Batten was flushed with embarrassment after he missed the start of his eve-of-conference talkRADIO interview with Julia Hartley-Brewer this morning for “personal reasons”. Her producer had already got him on the line when he disappeared. The prospect of Julia’s fearsomely tough questions clearly loosened his bowels. For a moment the producer thought they had been dumped. The subject matter of Julia’s cheeky question pushed the interview into a sticky situation. After passing that initial conversational blockage, the sit-down interview was back on a roll…
Guido hears that Victoria Ayling, who stood as one of UKIP’s top candidates in 2015, the 2016 Sleaford by-election and sat on UKIP’s NEC, has re-joined the Tories after quitting the party by personally telling David Cameron at the 2013 Conservative Party Spring Forum.
Ayling, known for such hits as “I just want to send the lot back, but I can’t say that” and “What happens when renewable energy runs out?”, has re-joined the Tories under her maiden name Victoria Brooks. Her mother claimed that Ayling joined the National Front in 1977 and attended meetings above a pub in Croydon. Meanwhile well-liked moderate former UKIP MEP and one-time Tory councillor Steven Woolfe is still being refused membership.
Guido understands she has obtained a pass and intends to attend Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham at the end of this month. Maybe she’s turned over a new leaf after attending one of Brandon’s re-education courses…
The UKIP motion proposing to make Tommy Robinson a member of the party has been dropped on a procedural technicality, Guido has learned.
Party Chairman Tony McIntyre emailed party members this afternoon to inform them that the motion had fallen foul of the party’s rule book because it was submitted by an individual, rather than a constituency association or similar, and was therefore ineligible to be debated at the party’s conference.
The move was welcomed by MEP Jonathan Bullock, who dismissed the issue as a “complete distraction” from the party’s main issue of Brexit, adding that “UKIP needs to continue to make the case for Brexit with passion and avoid internal arguments about whether an individual should be a member or not”. UKIP should never have allowed it to get even this far…
This weekend UKIP’s NEC will decide whether to allow members to hear a conference motion proposing that former EDL leader Tommy Robinson is offered membership of the party. UKIP’s Family and Children spokesman Alan Craig has submitted a motion to be debated and voted on at their party conference, which is expected to be approved for debate by UKIP’s NEC on Sunday.[…] Read the rest
