Everything enclosed in this email is backed up by evidence. I have been silent until now, but I believe it is time that all UKIP members were made aware of the real reason that I was expelled, rather than the ‘spin’ and lies that have come from certain persons within the party. When you consider the entire evidence, take into consideration that Nigel Farage has now stated different versions why I was thrown out of the party: for racialism which he did on prime TV, because of the Derek Clark incident. At no time did any of the panel read the evidence that Nigel Farage, Steve Crowther were involved in removing me from the party as early as May 2013, because it incriminated the top people in the party.
Matthew Richardson has also played a part in driving me out of the party. He is the UKIP Party Secretary and Director whilst also being the YBF Executive Director. If you look at their website you will find the following information, quote “YBF is a British conservative not-for-profit training, YBF enjoys close links with the British Conservative Party.”
HOW THINGS HAPPENED IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER
1. THE FIRST THING
Nigel Farage refused to attend the East Midland Training Conference at Skegness in 2013
2. BOSTON/SKEGNESS PARTY POLITICAL CANDIDATE (PPC)
Lisa Duffy, Party Director, tried to take away my PPC for Boston/Skegness at the NEC meeting on the 6th May, 2013. She stated that she and Steve Crowther hadn’t been notified of the hustings. I proved that I had been adopted by producing copy emails which had been sent to them both, by Don Ransome Regional Organiser, giving them the required notice. It was discovered that Don Ransome, UKIP’s paid Regional Organiser, had wiped the emails from his computer. (The Regional Organiser and his wife have had a legal letter to stop them spreading lies and defaming my character.) The NEC voted unanimously in favour of my adoption.
3. RACIST COMMENTS
At the end of May last year my Facebook was cloned and was posted to ‘Hope Not Hate,’ who immediately forwarded it to the Sunday Mirror.
Monday 3rd June, 2013 at the NEC monthly meeting, I was questioned about the posting. I produced several hundred Facebook members’ statements, confirming that they had never seen anything racist or untoward on my site, or elsewhere attributed towards me. These people were linked to me personally so that any post I made was automatically posted to their computers. I had letters from friends of all nationalities stating that they had known me for years and that I was not racist.
Steve Crowther presented a case that these posts had been on my Facebook page and been deleted. I stated quite categorically that the posts had never been on my site at anytime.
The following week, I explained to Steve Crowther that I had evidence, produced by an IT expert, which confirmed that the racialist comments were never on my Facebook.
Steve Crowther maintained that it would not make a difference. I told him of course it did, as obviously, if they were never there in the first place, then how could I have deleted them.
In addition Steve Crowther advised that I had never reported the incident to the police. This was reported to the Skegness Police Force and ultimately passed on to Action Fraud – Crime Reference Number NFRC130500251709 that refers. There was also a full CID investigation into the incident. Mr Crowther, with his ulterior motivies, persuaded the NEC that I was a liar, with his own spin on the situation, without any actual evidence. I was suspended from the NEC for three months pending the outcome of the police investigation of which I was cleared.
4. BEHIND THE SCENES
Steve Crowther sent an email instructing Pete Reeves to remove me as leader of the UKIP Lincolnshire County Councillors, despite which four attempts were made and failed before Steve Crowther finally suspended me from the party. Two ex Conservatives, Victoria Ayling and Robin Hunter-Clarke, were allowed into the party and became elected councillors for UKIP in Lincolnshire, being pushed to the forefront by the leadership. These persons subsequently received an email from Steve Crowther advising them of my suspension. No other UKIP Councillor has received such an email. Victoria Ayling and Robin Hunter Clark then approached the Chief Executive of Lincolnshire County Council to persuade him to remove me from my UKIP Group, at the same time disrupting the Group, making constant attempts to remove me as Leader. They had already been removed as Deputy Leaders, by unanimous vote, because of their continuous disruption and none attendance. They went on to break our groups constitution by organising a separate meeting in respect of which only Councillors of their choosing were notified. All this time false information was being leaked to the press.
In June 2013, all elected Councillors were invited to Brussels. John Beaver was directly involved in a conversation with Nigel Farage during which Nigel stated that Chris Pain was no longer in favour with the party and would soon be excluded.
5. FLAWED MEP SELECTION PROCESS
On the 18th August 2013, I forwarded an email which had been sent to UKIP MEP Mike Nattrass.
In this email Steve Crowther states:-
“This NEC notes the technical procedural failure in relation to the appointment of the selection panels for the selection of MEPs. Further notes that the process was carried out by the following people acting as a de facto selection panel.”
(De Facto means as a fact authority being exercised or an entity acting as if it had authority, even though the legal requirements have not been met.)
Doug Denny stated:
“The appointment of independent persons was to be by the delegated, by an independent sub-committee of the NEC, not by the full NEC, nor by any individual.
At no time was Steve Crowther given delegated powers by the NEC to appoint these people. There is nowhere in the minutes to show he had these delegated powers conferred. The selection procedure using delegated people for the personal assessments is, I believe, seriously flawed, probably fatally so.
The people for the selection / assessment panel were appointed by Steve Crowther without approval of the NEC members in a vote. The whole procedure is therefore flawed if this is correct. The MEP selection process was changed by Steve Crowther against the wishes of the Regional Chairmen and party Activists.”
6. CONSPIRACY – WILL GILPIN, EX CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF UKIP
The intention to take me out of the party was confirmed in a (recorded) conversation with Will Gillpin, UKIP Chief Executive Officer and also several other senior UKIP members. See verbatim conversation below:-
Chris Pain: “Well did Steve have any conversations with you or anything separately or?”
Will Gilpin: “I’ll give you an honest answer which is I can’t remember the details, but I was well aware that Steve Crowther had a lot of activity towards you and had made it very clear that he would like to get you out of the party, and would do whatever he could to achieve that.”
Will Gilpin: “Do you remember when you arranged your conference; you invited me and Katie to speak at it, or me to speak at it. I turned you down because Steve Crowther gave me a direct order that I wasn’t to attend, and that I wasn’t to have anything to do with you, and given that he was paying my pay cheque went along. Just because, Steve Crowther’s argument to me was basically that the conference was a project designed to get you elected, and as we didn’t want to get you elected, we had to do our best to not support it”
Chris Pain: “ I mean was it ever said why he wanted me out the party, has he ever dropped that reason out, or…? Is it down to Nigel or…?
Will Gillpin: “Yeah, it’s all been partly down to Nigel. I think it’s because you’re pushy and Nigel doesn’t like anyone pushy because they might go for the leadership at some point.”
*The lack of attendance of UKIP speakers caused the Gala Night, Sunday training and PPC assessment day to be cancelled. We were also fined for late cancellation. Although Steve Crowther’s actions hampered the weekend, the Conference day was a success.
7. MY RESIGNATION FROM THE NEC
2nd September 2013
I resigned from the NEC. I decided I could no longer rubber stamp what I deemed to be a flawed MEP selection process. I could not condone the way the NEC business is conducted i.e. in total secrecy, not informing the members of its actions, or how people vote. I believe this to be totally undemocratic and with this in mind I typed out my resignation from the NEC.
I also on this date registered my disapproval re Steve Crowther’s lack of integrity and the flawed MEP selection process. I presented the transcript of Will Gilpin’s recording to the NEC. Despite this Matthew Richardson and Jonathan Arnott refused to allow the recording be played, stating that I could forward the recording to NEC members, advising that my complaint against Steve Crowther, re the flawed MEP selection process and the email that I sent to Mike Nattrass, would be looked at during the NEC meeting in October as it was classed as not urgent.
8. SUSPENSION
Friday the 6th September
After producing this information I was suspended from the party on the following by Steve Crowther using his emergency disciplinary powers, and referring to the Will Gilpin recorded conversation. At this stage I must point out that as an NEC Member, (which means I was a Director of UKIP Ltd), I was entitled to record any evidence of wrong-doing within the party/company. In addition it is not illegal to record a conversation in one’s own home.
9. EXPULSION
11th September
I was expelled from the group of Councillors. 5 UKIP long standing members supported me as they were aware of previous events, which had lead to the expulsion.
12th September
Notice of a disciplinary hearing to be held on the 18th September. My solicitor chased for case documents from UKIP and this appeared over the weekend. This left only 48 hours which to avail myself of all the allegations. My legal representation and I questioned the makeup of the panel, which could hardly have been classed as impartial.
10. THE HEARING
I was able to prove at the hearing that all the statements and accusations made against me were false. The only query involved an apparent difference in the structure of emails, surrounding the attachments, which appeared to the amateur, to have been presented in different ways. Being untrained in IT myself, I was unable at the time to produce an answer. (After, consulting with an experienced technician later, it appears that these differences relate solely to the type of systems in operation in each case.)
Apart from the computer issue I answered all accusations truthfully and with a clear conscience, despite which I was still expelled from the party. The primary issue at the hearing was the forwarding of the email and recording. I produced evidence that Mrs Pain Senior sent the recording and email’s, whilst I was not in the office and was on site at a Planning meeting.
Matthew Richardson stated at the end of the hearing:
“well we’ve explained in the sense that we agree with the Chairman’s reasoning, that the dissemination of this material is damaging to the party and erm, as a result we have no choice but to expel you”.
At the hearing it was stated by Matthew Richardson that he would be recording the hearing and provide a copy of the recording and the transcript. No recording was provided and the transcript was eventually sent. I can prove the transcript is both inaccurate and has been altered.
11. UKIP CONFERENCE
At the UKIP conference, three UKIP Lincolnshire Councillors were discussing the situation regarding me when Nigel Farage walked into the room. He said nothing for a while then said see verbatim conversation below:-
Nigel Farage: “Pain had caused trouble for the party for a long time” Alan Jesson: “What do you mean by that” Nigel Farage: “He had made allegations against Derek Clark MEP, and that he, Pain, was a troublemaker and not to be trusted.”
Alan Jesson: “What about all the good work Chris has done and Lincolnshire needed Chris.”
Nigel Farage: “UKIP is bigger than Pain, and Pain was not coming back into the party.”
Alan Jesson: “Chris will be appealing”Nigel Farage got mad and started banging his fists on the table
Nigel Farage: “I have no influence over the appeal, but I tell you now that Pain is not coming back into the party”
I need to clarify, at this stage, that the East Midlands Committee asked Derek Clark to stand down as chairman. I have EMCC minutes to prove that Charles Swaby had raised the issue of Derek Clark, as per NEC rules that he wasn’t entitled to be Chairman. There were several discrepancies over Derek Clark’s OLAF investigation where he was found guilty. He had to repay over £30,000.00 back to the EU because of misuse of his allowances. He lied to the committee regarding this fact. There was also his involvement in the Leicester by election and flawed Mayoral candidate. The vote was unanimous by the East Midlands Committee to remove Derek. Derek’s response was to disband the EMCC committee at the start of the meeting, without the committee’s prior knowledge.
12. SUPPORTING COUNCILLORS EXPELLED
The 5 Councillors that supported me had an email confirming that they had done nothing wrong and were ‘in good standing with the party’. Matthew Richardson stated he would come to Lincolnshire to resolve the issue, he never came. These Councillors were subsequently expelled from UKIP for supposedly forming a political party, which was proved at their hearing, not to be the case and confirmed by Lincolnshire County Council and Lincolnshire Echo. They were promised notification by December after my appeal had been heard, about their situation. To date they have heard nothing from the party.
13. APPEAL HEARING
The panel at my Appeal hearing should have been unbiased but two out of the three who sat on the panel were EFD employees, paid and controlled by Nigel Farage.
Unable to attend the hearing due to Council commitments, I had asked for 3 alternative dates to be set, once the Data information that I had requested had been received. Jonathan Arnott stated if I couldn’t attend on the date they had set, the hearing would go ahead without me. This breaks UKIP’s constitution that states that the ‘appellant’ should be present, and also breaks the case of natural justice in the court of law. Data Request information has still not been forth coming to date.
After reading the Appeals panel conclusion I once more discovered that Steve Crowther had lied to the panel. The panel stated that I was expelled because of the email that was sent to Mike Nattrass, which means I was thrown out of UKIP for whistle blowing on the flawed MEP selection process.
I have evidence which shows that Matthew Richardson has instructed the NEC to alter previous NEC minutes to suit Steve Crowthers actions.
One thing for consideration is that I was anti any pre election packs between UKIP and the Conservative party. This is where UKIP members would stand down in safe Tory seats. Nine regional chairmen had supported me in favour of regional MEP selections. I would not betray members or the British public.
If you need any proof of all of the above please ask.