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


Friday, January 14, 2005 

Lawrie Boxall calls for Leadership Change

A senior and respected, if not guiding light, of the UK Independence Party has publicly called for a change of leadership. The posting placed on the public internet debating website for UKIP members (UKIP Forum) is posted here in full and was as follows:-

"Last night my branch members (Bracknell & Wokingham) voted overwhelmingly for a motion calling on the party to convene an EGM to debate a motion of no confidence in the leader and the NEC. We hope this will now happen and that a leadership election will ensue. Despite the awful timing, the members decided it was essential to move this forward now. The news today that RK-S will consider starting a new party confirms our decision.

Personally I am extremely disappointed it has come to this. I have been in UKIP for nearly 9 years. I was one of the NEC members who signed Roger's nomination paper 2 years ago and I have remained loyal as long as I was able. I have not spoken publicly about this before now in the interests of party unity, despite being very unhappy with the way the party has been run for many years - including the time I spent on the NEC. I hoped for improvement under Roger. I have not seen it. In fact the party has become markedly less tolerant, unnecessarily so, and on the verge of a general election, has no political leadership that I can observe.

I believe we are being poorly led and are in danger of missing a massive opportunity to become one of the 2 main parties vying for the government of this country over the next 10 years.

So far as RK-S is concerned, I believe he discovered the nature of the party leadership and rightly decided to refuse the role of Campaign Manager. Had he taken it he would have made himself the creature of the leader's group, with whom he profoundly disagrees. You can argue that he should just have walked away at that point, but that's not easy to do if you have a vision for the future of this country and the will to try to bring it about.

I don't for one minute think life with RK-S as leader will be a bed of roses - the opposite is very probably the case. But he, and no-one else currently in UKIP, has the ability to transform this party into one that is capable of gaining mass support. Under his leadership we can win seats at this election and that is absolutely essential if we are to achieve our long term aims."

An earlier quote from Mr Boxall, just after the public dispute about whether Roger Knapman had ever stated he would resign the leadership, which was along the following lines, "it seems Robert Kilroy-Silk has slipped the harness", did much in my view to prevent a quick resolution to the present leadership crisis within the UKIP. Whether or not this late conversion will now leave something to be salvaged from the UKIP ashes must remain to be seen.

The existing shambles in which the party now stands after years of Nigel Farage's manipulations and underhand dealings makes the objectives set out by Mr Boxall for UKIP look optimistic in the extreme.

Only an almost complete clean sweep of the leadership, NEC and paid employees would offer any scope for electoral success in a national contest! A review of this blog's archives could not make that more clear. So only a weary and half-hearted 'Welcome Aboard' from this blog for Mr Boxall, I fear, with perhaps a mumbled, "At Last", for good measure!

posted by Martin |7:29 AM
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