To the delight of its enemies, Ukip has just announced its general secretary has been suspended over ‘impropriety allegations’. According to a statement released by the party, claims have come to light ‘about the conduct of Mr [Roger] Bird with regard to candidate selection’.
A Ukip spokesman said on Monday evening:
‘Unfortunately, Ukip has had to suspend Mr Bird pending a full investigation into allegations made against him. The party has acted swiftly and decisively and will not tolerate impropriety of any kind amongst its staff.’
Of course, the news will be grist to the mill for those who claim that Ukip is nothing more than a bunch of charlatans, and that it cannot cope with the pressures of being a national movement. The party has offered no more details about the specific nature of these allegations but they are apparently not related to a dozen activists quitting the party over Nigel Farage’s handling of candidate selection.
Bird has been Ukip’s General Secretary since July 2014 and was selected last year as its PPC in Mole Valley, Surrey. He left the Conservative Party in 2009 and joined Ukip a year later.
UPDATE: The reason for Field’s suspension is revealed in the splash of tomorrow’s Times, which makes allegations of sexual misconduct (£) between Roger Field and Natasha Bolter, a Labour defector to Ukip and potential PPC in South Basildon:
Tomorrow’s Times splash
‘Natasha Bolter, a headline speaker at Ukip’s party conference, has pulled out of hustings today in South Basildon, where she was widely expected to be elected as parliamentary candidate in the winnable seat.
‘Ms Bolter, 35, claims that Roger Bird, Ukip’s general secretary and the man in charge of vetting parliamentary candidates, propositioned her over dinner at his London club on the day that he interviewed her as a prospective candidate.
‘”He asked if we could continue the interview at the Oxford and Cambridge Club that evening,” Ms Bolter said. “I thought it was because I was nervous. [But] when I went I could see that he wasn’t really interested in what I had to offer as a politician. He took me down to the snooker room and said ‘I find you very attractive’. He said, ‘Would you like to come home with me?’’
Bizarrely, the party has chosen none other Neil Hamilton, disgraced Conservative and now deputy chairman of Ukip, to stand as the candidate in South Basildon after Bolter refused to take part. The hustings are due to take place on Tuesday evening.
Comments