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IT WAS CURTAINS for UKIP Leader Henry Bolton today after 63% of UKIP members backed a “no confidence” motion. The vote took place at an extraordinary general meeting in Birmingham.
The decision came after Mr Bolton’s girlfriend was found to have posted racist Tweets. The Party’s ruling body had already passed a similar motion, but the members’ endorsement of the no confidence motion now means that Bolton must resign.
There will now be another leadership election – the fifth in two years. The details have yet to be announced, but voting is expected to take place within three months. Until the result is known, Gerard Batten MEP will grasp the well-worn Leader’s baton.
Batten’s record is arguably worse than that of Henry Bolton’s girlfriend. The 63 year old former British Telecom salesperson is a founder member of UKIP: he was its first Party Secretary and became an MEP in 2004. He has made several controversial statements from this platform, but probably the most divisive have been on multiculturalism and Islam.
Batten has called for a ban on any further mosques being built in UK cities and said that Christianity and Islam could not co-exist peacefully. He has written about the need to dismantle multiculturalism – starting with banning practices such as halal slaughter and Islamic banking.
So much, so offensive – but it gets worse. Batten has also been involved in more sinister practices such as trying to get Muslims to sign a “Charter of Muslim Understanding”, under which Muslims would have to reject certain parts of the Qur’an. Batten was later to write that it was “normal” for a non-Muslim to fear Islam.
Batten has tried to defend himself by claiming that his writings are about Islam, not directed at individual Muslims. That will fool no one. Any UKIP member who wants to see the Party continue must be hoping that a new Leader can be found very, very quickly.
•Read more about it:
UKIP: pressure grows on Henry Bolton
UKIP: EU Whips clash over “extremist” Waters
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