Tuesday 26 January 2016

Ukip offer 3rd rate "Welsh" candidates, or 2nd rate former Tories next May.

BBC Wales has reported on the growing row within  UKIP's governing body  over parachuting Candidates from outside Wales  to stand as lists candidates  and that some some members are  "defying" Welsh leader Nathan Gill by refusing to approve the party's assembly election candidate selections

According to the Beeb.
The National Executive Committee (NEC) met on Friday for the second time in two weeks and discussed the matter.
Its role is to sign off a list of assembly election candidates put forward by the party in Wales.
But BBC Wales understands it failed again to approve the list.
The party's source told BBC Wales: "The NEC - on which [former Conservative MP] Neil Hamilton sits - has become factionalised and is opposing the selections put forward by the party in Wales and supported by Nigel Farage.
"There are people on the NEC defying the leader in Wales.
"It's a real stalemate between the Welsh leadership, who Nigel supports, and the NEC."
Some Welsh members have warned that selecting candidates from outside Wales - including Mr Hamilton - would be damaging.
On Friday, UKIP councillor Kevin Mahoney said he would quit the party if Mr Hamilton, Mark Reckless and Alexandra Phillips were selected.
Based on its recent electoral performance in Wales, the party stands a good chance of getting several regional AMs elected in May.
Mr Hamilton did not want to comment.
A spokesman for UKIP Wales said: "There is so much vested interest in the process as it could be UKIP's first major breakthrough into a domestic parliament and the party and its members want to be sure that the best candidates are selected for the job."
Is Mr Hamilon in charge of his own selection I wonder?

If the three named above are selected in the top 2 of the regional  lists will there be a backlash among Welsh voters  whose support for Ukip is probably wobbly anyway?

Will there be an ironic accusations of racism  if other parties  highlight  that some Ukip candidates seem to imposed from outside Wales.

It says a lot about the calibre of Ukip  Welsh membership  where they have to turn to a former Tory MP who defected to them and then lost his seat and a disgraced former Tory MP who despot being raised in Amamnford  seems to have worked the hardest in loosing his accent.

Despite their notoriety  neither Mr Reckless or Mr Hamilton  were good MPs seen as rising stars in their former party s.


With  Ukip set to win a number of  seats It looks like we  will either have third rate Ukip AM from their Welsh membership or second rate AM who come from outside.

What a choice. 

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

You can always trust the kippers to push the self destruct button, and it looks like farage and co might once again have contrived to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory with this row. It's clear that if party hq in london imposes the likes of hamilton on the party in wales there'll be some high level resignations among the welsh kippers - a development hardly likely to do its poll figures much good. It would be a wonderful irony if ukip tears itself apart over who gets the best place on the regiuonal lists for the welsh assembly - an institution ukip has spent most of its existence opposing.

Bill Chapman said...

Don't assume that UKIP functions like the other parties. It really is a tiny group. UKIP does not have candidates yet. It also lacks an army of foot soldiers knocking on doors in the constituencies. It depends on the U.K. national coverage of the doings and sayings of their guru Nigel Farage. He is being rather quiet since he invented a ludicrous threat to his life. My conclusion, as a result of some canvassing for Welsh Labour, is that UKIP has lost a lot of its support in Wales.

glynbeddau said...

Maybe but in the last Election Ukip didn't even have to campaign and got the sort of vote which would have sen them get seats next May.

With an Brexit referendum looming they are going to get a huge amount of coverage not directly linked to Wales in the UK media . Whilst the Assembly elections will be ignored.

Anonymous said...

Neil Hamilton who is on UKIPs NEC refused to leave the room when requested at UKIP's NEC meeting 3 weeks as the candidates for his choice of region were being discussed.

He was allowed to stay by his friends on the NEC and even took part in the debate over his own position.

So one candidate out of 40 was allowed to witness and take part in his own selection.

Anonymous said...

extraordinary stuff anon - but on a positive note these shenanigans can only reflect very badly on the kippers.