Tuesday 4 April 2017

Ukip internal war in Wales continues.

Ukip seem to be falling apart UKIP has 20 members in the European Parliament, with representatives in eleven of the twelve European Parliament constituencies in the UK. Twenty-four UKIP representatives were elected in the 2014 election, but four have since defected.
They have lost thier  single MP Diuglass Carswell who  quit the party in March 2017 to become an independent, leaving UKIP without any MPs in the Commons.
UKIP won seven seats in the 2016 Welsh Assembly elections but, after a row, fellow north Wales AM and former UKIP Wales leader Nathan Gill left the assembly group to sit as an independent. though he is still a member 
He may well be joined by another 
UKIP AM Michelle Brown is to face a vote of no confidence among party members across north Wales.
Party activists met in Holywell, Flintshire, on Monday to discuss concerns about "serious misconduct".
In recent months, Ms Brown has denied a hotel's allegations of smoking recreational drugs, and of impropriety over changing the text of a job advert.
She declined an invitation to attend the meeting, and her spokesman described it as "petty infighting".
UKIP assembly leader Neil Hamilton said Ms Brown had his full support.
Members from six UKIP branches in north east Wales passed a vote of no confidence in Ms Brown but decided to hold a wider vote of members across north Wales in about a month's time.
Shaun Owen, vice-chair of UKIP's Delyn branch, told BBC Wales that activists in north Wales felt "deserted" by Ms Brown and by the party in general.
"We've been very active over the past 18 months to two-year period in getting her elected to a position as the AM and also, of course, promoting the Leave campaign,"
"A lot of people have put in a lot of effort, a lot of footwork, a lot of time and a lot of money into those campaigns as well, only to be rejected by Michelle Brown."
 UKIP Delyn treasurer Susan Williams added the AM was not "engaging with the population" or properly representing them in the assembly.


Neil Hamilton told BBC Wales the meeting was organised by people who were largely not members of UKIP. 
"This meeting has no constitutional significance at all," he said.
"It's a culmination of a long and bitter campaign, a personal campaign against her, and she has my full support."
 BBC Wales say it  has seen a copy of a letter from Mr Owen inviting Ms Brown to the meeting to discuss her "serious misconduct", saying there was a "deep sense of growing disquiet, disillusionment and alarm" amongst members.
Ms Brown's spokesman has denied the allegation, saying the "strong smell" in her room was caused by a strong tobacco product.
Details of discussions between Ms Brown and an assembly official concerning how an advert for a job in her office could be changed to help her brother get an interview for the post are also included in the letter.
Ms Brown has said she acted with "complete propriety" in the matter.
Mr Owen's letter also cited a property leased by the North Wales AM to serve as her regional office which has never been opened.
Responding to a Freedom of Information request by BBC Wales, the Welsh Assembly said it had paid £2,027.93 for the property between October 2016 and March 2017.
The assembly said the office in Shotton, Flintshire, was not occupied "because work necessary to ensure its security was carried out incorrectly".
Responding to the letter, a spokesman for Ms Brown said: 
"This letter represents nothing more than some petty infighting that is a relic from the pre-Nuttall era."
I wonder what that means? Is there a purge of Farage supporters on the cards?


Let face it i couldn't give a dam if  Ms Brown snoked pot in her Hotel unless she was to condemn it in others.

The details over her brothers job application are bad but I wonder how many AM's have tweaked the process to employ family members?

Who leaked it anyway?

It  may well be that other Parties feel their AM of MP is not up to scratch, but Ukip seem a party where members put their individual ambition first and beleive it is or she that should be sitting in a seat and are prepared to split the party to do so.

When Ukip won the seven assembly seats last year I pondered how many would still be in the group by the next election.

The way things are going not many.

1 comment:

Leigh Richards said...

Now the uk is walking away from the EU there is no reason for UKIP to exist, whatever the mantras regularly spouted by its leadership about the party still having a future. Post brexit ukip's right wing economic and british nationalist agenda will be easily carried on by the tories (there are clear signs this is already happening).

I dont know what the complexion of the senedd will be in 2021 - hopefully it will be stocked with AMs who want a referendum on independence for wales, but i think we can predict with some certainty that by the summer of 2021 the Siambr will be kipper free.