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
Following his appointment to acting leadership of the motley convocation of saloon bar propper-uppers at UKIP, new Oberscheissenführer Adolf von Batten has inspected the party’s coffers, and found that, after all the Dark Money and diverted EU expenses had been cut off, the cupboard was bare. And with a six-figure legal bill following the involvement in MEP Jane Collins’ libel loss, desperate measures were in order.
I em not a racialist but, und zis is a big but …
So von Batten, an unrepentant Islamophobe who regards Islam as a “death cult” – a remark that got him suspended from Twitter – has decided to reach out to like minded people and effectively turn the Kippers into a sort of BNP Mark 2.
We can figure that out from Kipper Central’s announcement: “Thousands of veterans are set to join the tide of those who have already signed up to the party under Gerard Batten’s leadership following a unanimous vote at Monday’s meeting to officially support the Veterans Against Terrorism Group … The motion, which was proposed by Gerard Batten at a UKIP NEC meeting where the Veterans Against Terrorism leaders were present was passed unanimously”. Veterans Against Terrorism is another far-right group.
That was clear from the accompanying photo which shows the logo of the Football Lads’ Alliance, “lads” being code for current and former hooligans. That the FLA was also on board was let slip by a VAT spokesman telling “Brexit is being betrayed, UKIP must once again rise to the challenge and fight for the real people, the forgotten people of this great nation. We the working class people, veterans, football lads and all other patriots must mobilize en mass and join UKIP, together we are stronger!” Tomorrow belongs to them.
Arron Banks’ propaganda site Westmonster has also told “Interim UKIP Leader Gerard Batten has announced a recruitment drive aimed at securing new members, including from street protest group the Football Lads Alliance – who are hosting Anne Marie-Waters at their next event. The leadership of the FLA have endorsed UKIP, according to Batten”.
She might be welcomed back …
And while enthusing “The Football Lads Alliance have held some huge counter-extremism demos”, even the UKIP faithful concede “Though with anti-Islam Anne Marie Waters speaking at the FLA’s next event, there is likely to be some controversy over the move”.
… and two of this group might be joining her …
But with the FLA, UKIP should know the score. As Hope not Hate has pointed out, “Another splinter from the FLA is the Anti-Terror Alliance (ATA) … HOPE not hate exposed one of the leaders of ATA to be the convicted terrorist Frank Portinari, the British Commander of the banned terrorist organisation Ulster Defence Association (UDA)”.
… after all, look who’s already there
The direction of UKIP under the less than benign leadership of Adolf von Batten is clear: to fill the coffers, the Kippers will get into bed with any and every far-right group out there. It can only be a matter of time before Britain First and the White Pendragons are welcomed. After all, Bill “Viagra Golliwog” Etheridge, one of Batten’s pals, has already endorsed the latter group, which tried to stage a lynching of London Mayor Sadiq Khan.
UKIP is so desperate, it is now prepared to ditch the veneer of mainstream respectability and become an explicitly racist party. Like it effectively has been for years.
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
Ukip’s Near Bankruptcy is All Too Understandable, when huge tranches of donor’s money goes to pay off past accrued debts and ‘indulgences’ & £Millions seemingly go missing in an atmosphere lacking in transparency and all too apparently corrupt!
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Hi,
one of the most damaging problems Ukip has is its own dishonesty with comments like:
‘but our members know that without Ukip there would have been no referendum for Leave.EU to campaign in’
lies like this have cost them dearly, in terms of credibility, support and membership. It is of course a palpable distortion of facts as it was Ukip who actively campaigned against Nikki Sinclaire and supported the lies and false witness against her in a campaign of harassment supported and led by Nigel Farage, and he and Ukip senior members sought to undermine and destroy the petition which she led for an IN/OUT Referendum on membership of The EU.
Despite Ukip’s efforts and by ploughing some £60,000 of her own money into the campaign, Nikki Sinclaire and her team obtained over 220,000 signatures petitioning for a debate in Parliament – the debate which when it took place led to the largest defeat/rebellion David Cameron had experienced in The House of Commons – thus forcing him to promise an EU IN/OUT Referendum by the end of 2017.
Ukip did absolutely nothing to support the petition and thus absolutely nothing to bring about the referendum – therefore to lie so blatantly shows, together with the inept leadership that failed to understand the British First Past The Post voting system which led to a near total wipeout in the General Election and the internal wrangling and squabbling ever since.
The dishonesty of Ukip, its continued harassment of, and lies about, individuals like Nikki Sinclaire, Jasna Badzac, Dr. Richard North, Major Niall Warry rtd., Dr. Eric Edmonds, Dr. David Abbott, Richard Suchorzewski, myself and many more have not only been hugely damaging for Ukip but is likely to damage the Leave-The-EU campaign, if associated with it directly.
Ukip have created with Nigel Farage a dangerous cult in British politics and like most cults they have a minority following of blinkered and easily duped & gullible followers and the vast majority who will do all they can not to be associated with the organisation – especially with an organisation like Ukip with its palpable fear of foreigners and the inevitable hatred of muslims, as typified by their publication, their writings and their comments of the likes of Gerard Batten, one of their longest serving MEPs – comments made and published that are all too likely to incite misplaced racial hatred and intolerant prejudice.
Ukip on brink of going bust: Party hit by huge fall in members after flop in Election
Ukip is facing financial ruin following a slump in membership
Loss of key donors in the wake of party’s poor Election performance
Ukip leader Nigel Farage has been forced to ring round backers begging for a financial lifeline
PUBLISHED: 00:42, 8 November 2015 | UPDATED: 00:54, 8 November 2015
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Ukip is facing financial ruin following a slump in membership and the loss of key donors in the wake of the party’s disappointing General Election performance, The Mail on Sunday has learned.
Insiders say the situation has become so desperate that many staff wages went unpaid last month, and leader Nigel Farage has been forced to ring round backers begging for a financial lifeline.
The problems have been compounded by the fact that the party’s biggest donor, Arron Banks, is now channelling his money instead into his own campaign for the UK to vote to leave the EU.
Insiders say the situation has become so desperate that many staff wages went unpaid last month, and leader Nigel Farage has been forced to ring round backers begging for a financial lifeline
It is understood that since the Election – when Ukip managed to win just one seat – the party membership has lost around one quarter of its 50,000 members, wiping £300,000 from annual revenues.
It comes as the party hopes to mount a strong challenge in the Oldham West and Royton by-election next month, which is being fought after the death of Labour’s Michael Meacher.
One party source blames ‘Nigel’s U-turn’ – when Mr Farage resigned as leader in the wake of his failure to win the Thanet South constituency only for him to change his mind shortly afterwards – for alienating supporters.
Ukip’s only seat came from Douglas Carswell, defending the Clacton constituency he won in a spectacular by-election victory.
Ukip received a total of £3 million from donors in the first four months of this year, but in the three months since the Election, the money coming in from donors and public funds is believed to have been less than £200,000.
The problems have been compounded by the fact that the party’s biggest donor, Arron Banks (pictured left), is now channelling his money instead into his own campaign for the UK to vote to leave the EU
Ukip’s only seat came from Douglas Carswell (right), defending the Clacton constituency he won in a spectacular by-election victory.
The crisis has led to nearly half of the party’s workers at their Devon head office being made redundant, and wages and bills going unpaid.
A senior party figure, who played an influential role in the Election campaign, said that Mr Farage had also been horrified to be hit by unexpected bills – such as an invoice for nearly £80,000 from Facebook for the costs of social media campaigns, plus business rates and other costs relating to a Mayfair office.
Last month, some staff failed to receive their pay cheques at all, and were only given partial salaries after bridging finance was found. The figure said: ‘It is a total car crash, unpaid bills everywhere including the poor people who paid for coaches and transport to take people to Mr Farage’s personal campaign.’
Mr Banks became Ukip’s biggest donor last year when he handed Mr Farage £1 million. He now runs Leave.EU, one of two ‘Out’ campaigns in the EU referendum, which claims to have more than 200,000 supporters and millions of pounds in pledged backing.
A Ukip spokesman said: ‘It was predicted that we could not pay our bills for the General Election in July, and that was not correct. The suggestion that we had a problem meeting payroll last month is also incorrect. It is certainly true that having a competitor like Leave.EU presents a challenge. As we are no longer the only game in town, we have to try harder to attract supporters, but our members know that without Ukip there would have been no referendum for Leave. EU to campaign in.’
Greg Lance - Watkins (Greg_L-W)
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PA Wire/PA Images PA Archive/PA Images
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