UKIP's European allies are under the spotlight following Nikki Sinclaire's resignation from the EFD group in protest at their "variety of extremist views".
UKIP’s European allies are under the spotlight following West Midlands MEP Nikki Sinclaire’s resignation from the European Freedom and Democracy Group (EFD) in protest at the “variety of extremist views” in the EFD and reports this afternoon that a Danish MEP has been questioned by police over “serious racial offences”.
Ms Sinclaire cited “anti-Semitism, violence and the espousal of a single European policy on immigration” amongst UKIP’s EFD partners as reasons for her resignation, adding that former UKIP leader Nigel Farage told her he wished UKIP “had only 12 not 13 MEPs”.
The UKIP-watch “Junius” blog backs up Ms Sinclaire’s allegations of extremism. It says:
“A Danish member of the EFD, UKIP’s group in the European parliament, has previously received a prison sentence for ‘racial offences’. He was later forced to resign his job after being caught ‘Heiling Hitler’ in a Copenhagen bar.”
Mr Farage, however, hit back at her claims on today’s Daily Politics. He said:
On Ms Sinclaire and UKIP’s problems with certain MEPs in general, he added:
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“She stood for us as a candidate without declaring the fact that she’d been declared bankrupt in 2005 and the NEC of the party take a pretty dim view about that.
“We’ve tried to do what we can, we do full criminal record checks on people, we’re doing what we can to get good people.”
In November, Left Foot Forward reported the conviction of former UKIP MEP Tom Wise for fraud, and reported the European Anti-Fraud office’s past investigations into UKIP and the current probe into Ms Sinclaire’s fellow West Midlands MEP Mike Nattrass.
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26 Responses to “UKIP crisis over “extremist views” of Euro allies”
The Cornish Democrat
RT @Nosemonkey UKIP's latest implosion is kicking off: @leftfootfwd: UKIP crisis over “extremist views” of Euro allies: http://is.gd/6c43n
Brian Duggan
RT @leftfootfwd: UKIP crisis over “extremist views” of Euro allies: http://is.gd/6c43n
Alun
Ah, the True Finns. I’m a Brit living in Finland. My wife’s a civil right’s lawyer here. There was recently the conviction of Jussi Halla-Aho on charges of “defamation of religion” because of him blogging anti-muslim hate speech. Amazingly this racist wasn’t convicted of inciting racial haterd. The leader of the True Finns, Timo Soini is currently popular, he’s anti-immigration but claims not to be racist. On the other hand the true Finns really do have a lot of unreconstructed nazis who follow them.
Alun
BTW these problems for UKIP seem to be perennial. I assume they only get votes in EU elections because the vast majority of the population never pay any attention to the party at other times. People who are in general uncomfortable with the EU can express that feeling without actually voting in a party in Westminster that would take us out of Europe. Whatever anyone thinks, the vast majority of people don’t actually want to leave the EU do they?
Liz McShane
I believe that the EU is a problem media wise as all we get are the negative and biased stories from the likes of The Mail/Express/Sun etc.
What Britain does need to do is work harder at relaying the positive messages and benefits that we have got from being members, why we should be more enthusiastic about the project (like lots of other EU states do) and not to be timid when to challenge the scaremongerers face on. Yes, of course there is a cost involved – that’s part of the deal – just like any other members’ club.