Withdrawal

The following morning I went along to the council offices and withdrew my nomination. I did not tell McGlade that I had done this as I wanted him to give me a full explanation is writing for his actions. He refused to explain himself, but in the late afternoon of the 9th April he did send me this final e-mail upping his cash offer:

I kept trying to get the explanation, but had no joy. At noon on the 10th I told him that the nomination had been withdrawn and the following day I received an official UKIP cheque for £230, signed by Fred McGlade, and a letter which still gave no information.

By the weekend several UKIP members had got in touch to express outrage at what had happened, with the general conclusion being that I should have stayed and continued the campaign.

It was pointed out that a regional organiser does not have the authority to suspend anyone, and on those grounds alone I should have just ignored the man.

I didn't, with the result that the people of Pendle Central do not have a UKIP candidate to vote for on the 2nd May 2013.

Clearly I made a terrible mistake in listening to Fred McGlade in the first place, but I honestly believed that if I did not do as he wished then he would turn the party machine against me. It was only later that it was patiently explained to me by more than one long-term member that the party does not have a machine and that the regional office consists of one F. McGlade and a press spokeswoman. By one of those little ironies that so abound in this life, the wages and the office are kept going because UKIP has a Northwest Euro MP: that's right, it's European Union money.

However, the real losers in all this are the people of Pendle central who no longer have a UKIP candidate to vote for. Since the party has never run in this division before the chances of winning were remote, but it was a marker for the future and had my campaign run to its conclusion then it could have been the starting point for other fights on other days. That will not not happen all because one man decided to lose the plot completely.

We still do not know what was going through Fred McGlade's mind because he will not answer repeated requests for a full accounting. His telephone conversation with me on the 8th April was disjointed and incoherent to say the least, so the only explanation currently available is the one that he ordered the press spokeswoman to write to the Socialist Workers Party member later that afternoon. In it he said that my withdrawal was as a direct result of the internet spat that had occurred some days earlier. If that version is truthful, then it is fair to say that McGlade was acting in the interests of the Socialist Workers Party rather than UKIP. If the mail is not truthful, then why was the press office told to write it?

The most logical explanation is that McGlade was angry with me because of my Thatcher Tweet and then ordered a cock and bull tale to be told to the Trotette just to shut her up. However, what kind of organisation is UKIP where party functionaries tell one tale to outsiders and refuse to say anything to party members?

I have put in official complaints about these actions and I demand a full and open investigation of the matter. As things stand UKIP is in danger of becoming a laughing stock, and the party really only has itself to blame for that situation.