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.
26 Responses to “UKIP crisis over “extremist views” of Euro allies”
Jed Keenan
Same question for the UKDPP and the question being “Should the UK have the death penalty or not?”. Bar a state of emergency it is a silly and completely deadend misdirection that pulls the agenda rightwards. if we had a UKEFP (Euro-federal) campaigning for wider integration or a Tory Party not hiding a fundamental schism then UKIP would avid this definition. Bring on the rise of the One Nation/Liberal Party.
Alun
Joe
“I’ve heard that most people do want to leave the EU, admittedly it’s only just over half, but it’s still a majority.”
Where’s the evidence? I mean I’ve heard that the moonlandings were a hoax, but I don’t believe it. I’m not saying you’re wrong, just that you need to provide a bit more than hearsay.
Tim
“Well, we certainly think so. Which is why our major demand is that we ought to go and have a vote on it. A simple referendum. “Should the UK be in the EU or not?” would just about cover it.”
But the evidence doesn’t support your claim. I mean it’s all very well to say that we should have a referendum, but even in the EU elections last year UKIP got only 16.5% of the vote. That’s nowhere near a majority and hardly convincing. The problem with UKIP is that they are a single issue party, and most people just don’t feel that strongly about the EU. There’s a world of difference between wanting to leave the EU, and thinking this is an important issue. I’d bet that the vast majority of those who say they want to leave the EU also list it way down their list of priorities. UKIP’s members are bound to feel strongly about it, but that 16.5% must include a lot of people who would never dream of voting UKIP in a general election simply because the main issue in a general election is not EU membership, it is things like taxation, healthcare, education, war etc etc. Besides we actually did have a referendum on leaving didn’t we? I’m amazed people conveniently forget this, but the Labour Party held a referendum on the EEC (as it was then) back in 1975, and people voted to stay in by 67%, so a 2:1 majority in favour of remaining in the EU. Incidentally the Tories under Thatcher campaigned to stay in. On the other hand I’m not personally against another referendum on the EU, I’m in favour of staying in, but if leaving is really what the majority want then that’s democracy, right?
If I’m honest though I don’t believe we have had anything like a fair balanced examination of the UK’s place in the EU from our media for the last thirty years. Our media are controlled mainly by super rich capitalists who live abroad, they have no interest in the EU because it has such strict competition laws. So their far-right mouthpieces spout lies, propoganda and disinformation about the EU. Blair had the chance to put a stop to this but was a coward.
But that’s politicians (all politicians), they always work for the vested interests of those who bankroll them rather than the interests of the population.
Joe
Alun:
You contradicted yourself there. The question that the voters were asked was:
“Do you think the UK should stay in the European Community (Common Market)?”
I don’t know about you but I cant for the life of me see the the phrase European Union in the question. This may be because the ‘EU’ did not exist in 1973, but instead a very different being. Nobody in Britain under the age of 52 has had a chance to vote at all, and me being 19, I want a vote! I do commend you on your support of democracy though 🙂
And the evidence of over half wanting to leave the EU?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/the_daily_politics/7949104.stm
Your point about UKIP only getting 16.5% of the vote. Ukip is not the only party that comes across Eurosceptic. If you add together all the Eurosceptic party votes, thats the Conservatives, UKIP, no2eu, the BNP, United Kingdom First, The English Democrats, and so on, the figure is far far higher. Just adding the Tory’s, UKIP’s and the BNP’s votes together, that’s 49% already.
All out media is bias to some degree though! The BBC is bias, and does leave For all the anti-eu bias, there is pro-eu bias. The Guardian and the BBC are both pro-EU.
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