UKIP could be wound up as a political party within a fortnight after a judge ordered it to pay a crippling £175,000 bill in legal costs for libelling three Labour MPs.
The pro-Brexit party is now facing bankruptcy in the wake of the ruling by Mr Justice Warby on Monday that it had to pay the bill within two weeks.
UKIP MEP Jane Collins falsely accused Labour’s three Rotherham MPs of covering up the town’s sex abuse scandal before the last election.
Sir Kevin Barron, John Healey and Sarah Champion sued for libel over Collins’ speech to a UKIP conference, which came a month after a report found about 1,400 children in the area had been abused between 1997 and 2013.
Collins has already been ordered to personally pay damages of £54,000 to each of the MPs.
The party is already reeling from a succession of failed leaders since Nigel Farage, saw its vote collapse in the 2017 election and is struggling to attract any donors to keep afloat.
It is currently run by interim leader Gerard Batten after former leader Henry Bolton was ousted by members following his links to a girlfriend who sent racist texts about Prince Harry’s fiancee Meghan Markle.
PA Archive/PA Images UKIP MEP Jane Collins
Although UKIP was not deemed responsible for Collins’ remarks, the High Court ruled last month that the party taken an “deliberate” decision not to settle the case before the 2017 general election.
And on Monday, Mr Justice Warby awarded costs – separately from the damages bill – of £175,000 to the three Labour MPs.
At an event in the party’s former heartland of Essex on Monday, current interim leader Batten conceded that UKIP may be “finished” unless it can find the cash.
“If we cannot raise it then the future of the party itself is in question,” he said.
Mary Newton, chairman of the Clacton branch of the party, told her local paper: “Mr Batten said we need to raise £100,000 in two weeks or that could be it. Mr Batten was just being honest and open with us about the situation.”
In a joint statement, Barron, Healey and Champion said: “UKIP’s actions behind the scenes forced the costs of this case to soar and compounded the damage from Jane Collins’ unfounded and hurtful allegations.
“This deliberate strategy hugely increased the legal costs and it is right that UKIP are today held liable for a large share of these costs.
“UKIP used the unfounded allegations by Jane Collins for political advantage.
“At the highest level UKIP knew Jane Collins’ case was ‘hopeless’ but blocked any settlement in our favour before the 2015 General Election because they believed it would win them votes.”
I try to make every effort to NOT infringe copyrights in any commercial way & make all corrections of fact brought to my attention by an identifiable individual
Holding A Mirror To The Lies Of Ukip but fair play to Nigel Farage & his placemen they are well aware they are telling lies and almost bright enough to realise they just aren’t credible to thinking people!
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Hi,clearly Ukip and what passes for their executive have learned absolutely nothing from the lessons, which they admitted to in April 2013.
Ukip realised they were telling lies to the electorate and their promises just did not add up, leading to a credibility gap where the more intelligent voters just could not believe their promises and unfunded policy claims.
It does seem that in fact they did learn something, to be fair, they learned they couldn’t get away with it so they seem merely to have dropped their standards and have continued telling the public lies but now have made a policy decision (rare in Ukip!) they seem now to be pandering to ther less well educated and poorly informed in society to seek out the populist vote.
This would seem to be a ploy well learned from the likes of Oswald Mosley and Adolf Hitler who used both overt and concealed racism to sweep the gutters of politics for any available vote, hate filled as it may have been.
Clearly the policy worked and Oswald Mosley was voted man of the year in 1934 and Hitler featured on Time magazine’s cover as the man of the year in 1938 as it worked for them clearly it worked for Nigel Farage, who became man of the year 2014, by telling lies and steering his cult down market to pander to that same audience.
Interestingly he failed in Scotland where he was rivalled in the same ploy by Alex Salmond!
That these facts are still irrefutable less than 100 days befor Britain’s General Election and Ukip still has neither a credible Manifesto nor any signs of a responsible, reputable policy for an EU eXit and survival strategy – surely no one but the illiterate and semie literate bigots and all be it veiled racists could possibly be so irresponsible as to vote for a Ukip candidate.
There are, I am sure, still some die hard principled members of Ukip who have remained in the party long past the time their common sense and ethics dictated, in the vein hope they just might be able to reform it from within. Sadly a hope that has been swamped by the corruption, squabbling, infighting and clear lack of principles competent leadership.
I still find it embarrassing to admit that although I was not adequately beguiled to join Ukip as a member nor accept any position with the party I did spend an inordinate amount of time acting behind the scenes to try to change its direction to make it credible as the party to lead the British peoples out of the EU.
Sadly, I confess, I failed and Ukip are now more of a hinderance to any hopes Britain has of repatriating our democracy, reinstating our sovereignty, re-establishing our borders and reforming our justice system by the fundamental human right, as defined by the UN and others, of ‘self determination’ and a clear unequivocal vote to Leave_The_EU.
It is for this reason that I shall refuse to place my cross against any whipped party hack which would be to spoil my ballot paper and I will, as I have done for many years, clearly write on my ballot paper the only political view I value LEAVE_THE_EU
Nigel Farage admits Ukip is NOT a credible party and has not been honest with voters
A leaked document reveals a meeting of Ukip’s ruling executive Farage admitted voters were starting to see through the party’s policies
Not credible: Ukip Leader Nigel Farage
Two-faced Nigel Farage privately told pals UKIP is not a “credible” party, secret papers reveal today.
In an explosive party document leaked to the Mirror he admits “promising the earth to everybody”.
He told UKIP chums the party had a “problem” due to a raft of unaffordable pledges including tax cuts, and extra cash for police.
“We are not passing the credibility test as a party,” said Mr Farage, who has repeatedly claimed UKIP is always honest with voters.
Warning: Neil Hamilton with wife Christine
But the leaked papers – minutes of a meeting of UKIP’s ruling executive – show the party’s top brass brazenly admit they have not been straight with the public.
UKIP deputy chairman Neil Hamilton – the disgraced ex-Tory MP – warned colleagues: “This is the last time we can get away with this.
“We can say anything on the doorstep.
“But on television we will have some pretty searching questions to answer.”
At the meeting, in April 2013, a panicking Mr Farage agreed voters are starting to see through UKIP’s endless unfunded promises.
The minutes state: “NF (Nigel Farage) thinks we cannot talk about council tax cuts and spending more on policing etc all at the same time.
“We are setting ourselves up for a fall.
“His problem is that we are promising the earth to everybody.”
The minutes go on: “NF feels we are not passing the credibility test as a party.”
UKIP claimed it had “taken on board” Mr Farage’s warnings and changed its ways.
Labour MP Sarah Champion said the damaging leak lays bare the truth behind UKIP’s public charade.
“This is absolutely typical of UKIP politicians who say one thing on the telly but have entirely different views in private,” she blasted.
Greg Lance - Watkins (Greg_L-W)
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PA Wire/PA Images PA Archive/PA Images
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