UKip exclude new AM in record time.

Ukip in Wales ( it seems pointles to even consider calling them Welsh Ukip) may well have broken some UK record with the news that newly-sworn in North Wales AM Mandy Jones will not be sitting with the UKIP group due to a row over her choice of staff, the party has announced.

She replaced Nathan Gill, who stepped down in December to devote his energies to the European Parliament.

The UKIP group said it would be "impossible" to work with Ms Jones as some of her staff had "campaigned actively for other parties".
Ms Jones said: "My politics have not changed and I remain a member of UKIP."

She said she found out she had been kicked out of party's Assembly group - led by Neil Hamilton - when she was handed a press release during a meeting with Assembly Presiding Officer Elin Jones.

She was third on Ukip’s  after Nathan Gill and Michelle Brown who were elected on regional list at the 2016, so next in line and under the Assembly’s partially proportional electoral system there was no need for a by-election.

Tough it is unclear whether  a party are obliged to accept the next line

She said she was “shocked, upset and appalled” to be told that she should dismiss the staff members previously employed by Mr Gill.
A former shepherd and the mother of four grown-up children, Ms Jones, who lives near Corwen, said: 

“Nathan Gill contacted me a while ago and told me that he intended to resign his seat and that under Assembly rules I would take over.
“I then had a dinner in north Wales with Neil and Christine Hamilton. They were charming, but it was mentioned to me that I shouldn’t reappoint Nathan’s staff and that they would help me to get staff

 of my own.
“I was very conscious of the fact that I needed people to help me through the transition. Assembly officials told me that Nathan’s staff members had a good work ethic. I was happy to take them on to help me. Otherwise I would have been totally unsupported.
“I couldn’t believe it when I was given an ultimatum. Before the group meeting on Monday evening the other Ukip AMs were all friendly towards me, so I wasn’t prepared for the nastiness. I didn’t sack the staff in line with the ultimatum, but I only found out they had excluded me from the group during a meeting with the Presiding Officer Elin Jones when I was shown the statement. I was shocked, upset and appalled.
“My politics haven’t changed, but after their behaviour I wouldn’t want to work with such a bunch of people. All my energy will be put into representing the interests of the people of North Wales.”

A UKIP statement issued on Tuesday morning said:

 "After discussions with Mandy Jones, AM for North Wales, we have collectively and unanimously decided that she will not be joining the UKIP Group in the National Assembly.
"Despite being asked by all five members of the Group not to do so, she has chosen to employ individuals in her office who are either members of, or have recently campaigned actively for, other parties, or both.
"They have been personally and publicly abusive to some of the UKIP AMs and sought deliberately to undermine UKIP Wales.
"Their behaviour and attitude makes it impossible to work with Mandy Jones on a basis of confidence and trust."

The statement added:

 "The UKIP Wales Group are united in this decision.
"We shall continue speaking against the cosy Cardiff Bay political consensus through our dedicated team of five Assembly Members."

Maybe Ukip jhave a case 
 
Llyr Powell, one of the four Nathan Gill staff members taken over by Ms Jones, said: 

“We are all on temporary contracts. I’m the one most disliked by Neil Hamilton and [his wife] Christine. I had a Twitter spat with her around 18 months ago.”

Asked whether he was now a member of the Conservative Party, Mr Powell said: 

“I plead the Fifth Amendment.”

One wonders if Ms Jones has been contacted by Nathan Gill and advised  how her three years until she loses her seat in the next Assembly elections could be uses to her advantage.

 Vaughan Roderick, BBC Welsh Affairs Editor commented

For a journalist, UKIP sometimes seems like the gift that keeps on giving.
On the one hand, the party can claim - justifiably - that it's achieved its main aim with the vote for Brexit. On the other hand, its internal machinations and personality clashes are seemingly endless.
Party members may have been hoping that Nathan Gill's departure from the assembly would bring about at least a semblance of unity in Cardiff Bay.
But the decision by his successor Mandy Jones to re-appoint his staff has torpedoed that prospect.
UKIP's success in the 2016 assembly election when they returned seven members is beginning to look like the party's high water mark in Wales. They're now left with a group of five, one of whom - Gareth Bennett - is banned from speaking in the Senedd.
The party's decision not to field a candidate in the Alyn and Deeside by-election is being presented as a mark of respect but, given that the seat was the party's top target two yearsago, it's also a sign of how far the purple tide has receded.

Still it brings the Assembly  into distribute so it was welcome to see that 3 weeks after being diagnosed with stage 4 cancerand 2 weeks after his operation.  Plaid AM Streffan Lewis was back at work in the Assembly speaking on reaction yo the Brexit negotiations.

We need more AM's like him not self serving  Ukip members  who are prepared to see their lucrative positions out until l their are wiped out in the2021 Assembly Elections.