Ukip Wales In Trouble Again Over Racism & Now Alexandra Phillips & Llyr Powell Quit as candidates just one month prior to the election on 05-May-2016
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16 UKIP candidates ‘reconsidering’ over Gareth Bennett row
By David Deans
Image copyrightMedia WalesImage caption Gareth Bennett sparked a row when he blamed immigrants for problems with rubbish in Cardiff
UKIP chairman Steve Crowther has been told 16 of the party’s Welsh election candidates are reconsidering whether the organisation represents them following a race row.
They have formally complained over comments by UKIP South Wales Central assembly candidate Gareth Bennett.
Meanwhile UKIP Wales head of media Alexandra Phillips is stepping down as a candidate citing personal reasons.
Mr Bennett’s fate as a candidate is expected to be decided on Monday.
The complaint about him, made in a letter to Mr Crowther seen by BBC Wales, reads: “We believe the party should take swift and immediate disciplinary action against Mr Bennett.
“We as candidates and many members who support us are deeply considering whether UKIP really represents us.”
The letter, signed by 16 candidates for the assembly and the police and crime commissioner elections, said Mr Bennett had “undermined the party and our own ability to campaign through his offensive… comments about immigrants to Wales”.
It said Mr Bennett’s comments “are contrary to UKIP’s fair and ethical stance on immigration”, and he had “degraded our ability to campaign and connect with voters by saying it is pointless to knock on doors”.
“Mr Bennett is not fit to be a lead candidate in a grassroots party where engaging the public is crucial to our success,” the letter added.
The South Wales Central candidate linked rubbish problems in Cardiff’s City Road area to immigration in a Wales Online interview in March.
He said: “I think with some of the ethnicities that have moved in, possibly the Eastern Europeans, they just don’t have any awareness of the hygiene problem that is being caused at times.”
He stood by his comments in an interview with the BBC’s Daily Politics programme, and said he had served a draft legal letter to his party saying UKIP could face action for lost earnings of £300,000 if he were to be deselected.
‘Final assessment’
Nigel Farage, party leader, said last week he was “less than impressed” with Mr Bennett.
UKIP’s vetting committee met on Sunday and is due to report to the NEC meeting.
Meanwhile, Ms Phillips, who was to be UKIP’s number two candidate on the South Wales Central regional list behind Mr Bennett, told BBC Wales she would continue in her media role for the campaign, but would no longer be seeking election herself.
“I’ve given it a lot of thought and have decided party politics is not for me,” she told BBC Wales.
“It’s a personal decision – I don’t want to take on a partisan role.”
In the long run we may well find that Alexanra Phillips has withdrawn from the election to preserve herself. Clearly the public have every right to know details on electoral candidates, whereas mere employees are of rather less significance and Ms. Phillips may well have felt she would be damaged and she may even have thoughty of the damage she would do to Ukip, as a leading candidate, as details of her indiscretions were published as a candidate even for the relatively insignificant position as a candidate, even member, of the National Ass. for Wales an over funded position in an EU Regional Assembly.
For starters perhaps we should consider the effect of CLICK HERE all be it the EU’s Regional Councils are defined as insignificant as shown CLICK HERE or HERE
That Ukip NEC finds Gareth Benett’s crass comments acceptable and have supported him as a leading candidate in Wales speaks volumes of Ukip’s shift towards the BNP position as racists happy to blame all problems on foreigners, you may recall Nigel Farage himself tried to blame immigrants for turning up hours late for a public commitment in Wales!
It will be interesting to see howmany members of Ukip Wales’ 16 candidates who wrote in protest at Gareth Bennett’s behaviour will follow the lead of Alexandra Phillips & Llyr Powell and stand down as candidates – Llyr Powell made it very clear that he was standing down in disgust unwilling to work with Gareth Bennett.
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Regards,
Greg_L-W.
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Posted by: Greg Lance-Watkins
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