Nathan Gill Brexit MEP for Wales must surely be counting his lucky stars that although he profess to want to leave the European Union , it has provided someone who couldn't be elected yo a community council with a lucrative income.
In July 2012, he came last in the election of councillor for the Llanbedrgoch electoral division.[9]
In May 2013, he led the UKIP group of candidates in the Anglesey local elections, which included his wife, Jana Gill (standing for Canolbarth Môn), and his sister, Jayne Gill (for Aethwy).[11] Gill himself stood to be elected as councillor for the new electoral division of Seiriol, but he came in eighth place with 7% of the vote.[12] The party did not win any seats on the island's council.
In August 2013, he came third behind Plaid Cymru's Rhun ap Iorwerth in the National Assembly for Wales by-election for Ynys Môn.
With John Bufton stepping down as MEP in 2014, Gill was selected as UKIP candidate number one for Wales in the European Parliament Election and held on to the seat for the party.
During the UK Independence Party Wales Conference on 6 December 2014, Nigel Farage, then-Leader of UK Independence Party, announced that Gill would be the Leader of the Party in Wales.[15] During the 2015 general election campaign, Gill represented UKIP in the ITV Welsh TV Leaders debate. During the election campaign, Gill denied human involvement in climate change, comments which were strongly criticised by other leaders.[
In the 2016 Assembly election Gill won a seat representing the North Wales region. He was beaten to the post of leader of the UKIP group in the National Assembly for Wales by former Conservative MP Neil Hamilton, in a move which Gill described as "bizarre".[18] Farage described the move as an "unjust act of deep ingratitude" [19] resulting in Hamilton dismissing Farage as simply an "MEP for South East England whose opinions were "irrelevant".[20] Gill subsequently left the UKIP group in the assembly to sit as an independent, citing much infighting and distractions.[21] He remained a member of the party and its leader in Wales, until Neil Hamilton was made Wales leader in September 2016.[22] Also in September 2016 Gill's media advisor Alexandra Phillips spoke to The Guardian, stating that she had left UKIP and joined the Conservatives, making comments critical of Hamilton.[23] Staying on as an advisor to Gill, she told BBC Wales that UKIP's foothold in Wales had become "a war zone"] Gill resigned as an AM in December 2017.
On 6 December 2018, Gill resigned from UKIP, in opposition to the party leader Gerard Batten's links to far-right activist Tommy Robinson He joined the new Brexit Party in February 2019 .
He won a seat at the European Elections this year representing Wales as a Brexit Limited Company MEP.
You can almost feel sorry for our Europeam Friends for inflicting him and the rest of Farage's rabble on them for a further period.
Wales Online reports the depths of deceit, that Mr Gill stoops to.
During an election campaign politicians are known for making quite outlandish claims but a Brexit Party MEP has really gone for it.Nathan Gill MEP was campaigning in the recent Brecon and Radnorshire by election when he made the wild claim that schools in the area were forced to only source their food from Germany and France because of the "procurement arrangement".
He said that this was preventing them from buying from local farmers.Speaking to Sky News he claimed: "When we leave the EU we will leave the procurement arrangement which means that schools here in Brecon have to buy produce from France or Germany they can be buying produce from local farmers."He then repeated his claim on his Facebook page. That is shocking right?Poor Powys schools surrounded by wonderful farms unable to buy local because the are forced to buy from French and Germans!In his replies, people were outraged. One said: "We have the best fresh produce in the world."Mr Gill's claim may be shocking, but it is also an outright lie.We decided to have a look at what the situation really is.
First we checked with Powys council who mange the schools in the area.Mr Gill seems to be taking a leaf out of US President book, Lie and Lie and Lie again . It doesn't matter if it's proven untrue so long as your followers believe it and develop a Conspiracy about the "Liberal Media".
A spokesman for the council said: "Schools are locally managed and can buy local produce."
Pretty unequivocal right?
Not only that the council also holds "meet the buyer" events where local trades people/companies are invited to meet the major contract holders. On top of this the council also hold a business breakfasts where they provide information to local business on how to work with local government.
So it certainly seems like they are not compelled by an evil EU directive to "only buy German".
To be extra careful we checked with the Welsh Government.
A Welsh Government spokesman said: "Local authorities and schools themselves have the responsibility for purchasing food for schools.
"A number of rural local authorities already buy local and Welsh produce for use in school canteens, which is a great way to connect pupils with the origins of their food, reduces the carbon footprint and supports the local economy too, which we fully support."
So clearly Mr Gill got this totally wrong. Concerned that he may have simply made a mistake we approached him about his clear and obvious error.
Instead of responding to our question about why he said the schools were not buy local he answered a question that hadn't been asked saying: "Under EU procurement rules, local authorities, schools and hospitals are required to tender to the whole of the EU.
"Once we have left the EU, the Welsh Government will be able to legally demand that all hospitals and schools purchase their food products from local farms, grown within a reasonable distance.
"As is, local companies may have tenders to supply food, but they do not have to purchase their supplies from farms nearby, but can find cheapest products from all over Europe.
"I am advocating to help local farmers and reduce the carbon footprint, that schools and hospitals purchase from as growers as close as possible."
The only thing we can say to this is good luck to those schools and hospitals looking for Welsh farmers to supply them with Welsh oranges when Mr Gill forces them to buy everything locally.
This wasn't the only whopper Mr Gill said in that video.
He also said that money that used to go to the EU could be used to find "new markets" like China. He added that "China is a huge market for pork, for lamb, for all kinds of products."
Well that is fair enough right? One we are free of the EU we can finally sell China our pork and lamb!
Except again this is very misleading because we can already do that.
As the latest figures here show China is already second only to the USA for agricultural exports from the EU.
Finally it is worth looking at the "procurement arrangement" Mr Gill incorrectly said was stopping people buying local. What exactly is it?The procurement arrangement is in place to try create a transparent and fair way for public procurement obtain better value for taxpayer money.
This includes safeguards, such as the possibility to reject tenders that appear to be abnormally low.
Any EU company can tender for public contracts but the local authority does not have to choose a German/French contract just because it is cheaper. The can decide to prioritise a local companies for instance because of the environmental benefit.
An EU Commision spokeswoman said: "Those rules specifically allow EU Member States’ public authorities to take multiple factors into account when awarding public contracts. They encourage public authorities to procure strategically and to put innovation, social responsibility and sustainability (including environmental sustainability) at the heart of their procurement procedures. This avoids awarding contracts solely on the basis of the lowest price."
When we ask Powys Council about this a spokesman for the council said: "Like other councils we have to meet financial regulations but can build into contracts community benefits which support local jobs and apprenticeships."
This time it didn't work mr Gill Brexit Limited Company hype did not match the result in Brecon and Radnorshire.
But Post Brexit as we face the inevitable Economic Disaster, expect all the Brexiters to come up with even more outlandisg lies as they blame everyone but themselves.
No comments:
Post a Comment