UKIP Uncovered

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

Thursday, January 20, 2005

Robert Kilroy-Silk quits UKIP - "I am ashamed to be a member"

STATEMENT BY ROBERT KILROY-SILK - 20 JANUARY 2005

To be announced at a meeting of the Bosworth Branch of the U.K. Independence Party tonight, 7.00pm, held at the Hinckley Golf Club, Leicester Road, Burbage, HINCKLEY, Leicestershire. Chair of Bosworth UKIP and convenor of the meeting is Mr Mark Harrison. Contact details below.

“In last year’s Euro elections, the U.K. Independence Party quadrupled the number of its MPs and knocked the Liberal Democrats into fourth place.

“This remarkable victory could have been a turning point in British politics. It could have been the moment when the silent, disillusioned majority finally found a voice.

“But that didn’t happen. Instead of reaching out to the millions who voted for them on June 10, UKIP’s leaders repeated the mistakes of the party’s past. They went AWOL.

“They betrayed the millions who were looking for a very different kind of political leadership.

“They squandered a golden opportunity to reach out to those who have grown tired of the old parties with their lies, their deceit, their broken promises, their discredited pledge cards and their slanging matches.

“For that I, and countless others, cannot forgive them.

“I tried, in my way, to give UKIP a vision, a sense of purpose and direction, but at each stage the old guard stood in the way,

“They had achieved their goal. They had got elected as MEPs. So off they went to Brussels, with expense-account lunches and generous subsidies, never to be heard of again. They were happy.

“They even refused a simple, fair and democratic means of resolving this matter - a leadership election of the whole membership. But instead, the self-serving cabal put every conceivable obstacle in the way, in order to retain power.

“They do not seem to want to be a mainstream political party. They do not appear to want to fight the General Election. They have certainly not shown any appetite for the battle.

“So that is why, amongst other reasons, I am announcing my resignation frorm UKIP.

“I have not changed my beliefs. I have not changed my determination to get Britain out of the European Union. I have not diluted my desire to see Britain a self-governing democracy. What I fought for in May and June last year, I will continue to fight for today and tomorrow.

“I also believe there are many who share my sense of sadness and disappointment. The people who are the backbone of UKIP fail to understand who so little has been done with the victory they worked so hard to achieve.

“But I have to say that the Party is regarded by those outside it as a joke. I am ashamed to be a member. I cannot ask people to vote for it because it has no policies, no spokespersons, no energy, no vision, no idea of how Britain should be governed.

“Instead I shall advise people not to vote for the Party. To do otherwise will be to be dishonest, to pretend that the party has a purpose - when in fact it is a charade, an empty vessel”.

“But while UKIP has turned its back on the British people, I shall not. I will be standing, at the next General Election. I shall be leading a vigorous campaign for the causes I believe in.

“And, unlike the old parties, we shall be honest, open and straight”.

posted by Martin |6:49 PM