UKIP Uncovered

UKIP Uncovered
What motivates the leaders of the United Kingdom Independence Party?

Wednesday, April 16, 2003

An Article was published in Darlington's "The Northern Echo' on Saturday 12th April, 2003 under the headline UK Independents take action after BNP infiltration claims

We had naturally been anxiously awaiting the archived link to appear on the newspaper's web site, as the content matter exactly matches the subject of this blog. Day after day, however, nothing appeared. Indeed even over the weekend the whole 'thisisthenortheast' website was subject to such considerable unavailability it was practically impossible to download an online version of the printed article. We persevered, however, and can wait no longer for the archived link to make life simple. Hand-typed, so please excuse slight errors, this is what the article reported:-

NEW members are to be appointed to the North-East committee of a political party after allegations of irregularities.

An investigation was launched by the national executive committee of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) over discrepancies in the selection of candidates for next year's European elections.

The North-East committee was suspended while the inquiry was carried out, and it was announced last night that a new board will be reconstituted now the investigation has ended.

The party also confirmed that the prospective European Parliamentary candidate for the North-East, Martin Cole, has been removed from the list of approved candidates.

A spokesman said the move followed a number of "groundless allegations" made by Mr Cole regarding the infiltration of the party by members of the British National Party (BNP).

He said the irregularities in the selection of candidates for the election resulted in existing members of the committee refusing to sign an undertaking to abide by the rules of the selection process.

Those who refused to sign have been removed from the committee and a fresh round of elections will take place for the vacancies.

UK Independence Party leader Roger Knapman said: "Mr Cole made a number of allegations regarding the penetration of UKIP by the far- right.

"UKIP has always acted swiftly to ensure that the far-right does not infiltrate the party.

"In one instance we have expelled an infiltrator who was found to be a member of the BNP. In another, a member of the party who had briefly been a member of the National Front in 1969, and who subsequently was a Conservative Party member for 20 years, has remained within the party."

Mr Cole who lives in Switzerland said he stood by his comments.

He said: "I feel that I am being made a scapegoat. I am naturally upset about the disqualification but, as per my original statement, I would not wish to run for office with the present leadership running the party and with the racist links remaining uninvestigated.

"I have been given a month to appeal. The North-East regional committee has evidence relating to how a BNP member was recruited and I will have to see what happens."

posted by Martin |9:49 PM