GERARD BATTEN: A Bleak Day For UKIP As The NEC Forces Out The Leader, So What Next?by Gerard Batten · 4:41 pm, October 31, 2019
The antics of the NEC have forced Richard Braine, UKIP’s Leader, to resign out of sheer frustration in being unable to carry out his role as mandated by the membership in August.
Richard is a decent and intelligent man who took on the role of leadership at the most difficult time in UKIP’s history and sought to guide the Party back along a path to electoral success. To do that he needed the backing of the Chairman and the NEC. What did he get? Nothing but their opposition and malevolent obstructionism.
We are now six weeks before a general election. We have a Party with no Leader, no General Secretary, no Party Secretary, no campaign fund, no candidates in place, no updated Manifesto, and members leaving by the thousands every month – all thanks to the NEC who do not have a clue what they are doing.
The NEC have succeeded in doing more damage to the Party in three months than would have been thought humanly possible. When I relinquished the leadership of the Party last June, we had just suffered the worst electoral defeat in our history, something for which I take full responsibility; however, we still had almost thirty thousand members and an income of £1 million per annum.
Much to my amazement the membership did not blame me for our defeat but recognized it was the result of a deliberately manufactured campaign by the MSM. They continued to back me and the things I had spoken out about. I reluctantly allowed myself to be persuaded to put my name forward in the leadership contest. That is when the NEC began their campaign to wreck the Party.
Despite having thanked me for my efforts at my last NEC meeting on 2nd June, and parting on good terms, they arbitrarily designated me as a member ‘not in good standing’ and prevented me from running for the Leadership. They did this because they knew I would win. I then backed Richard Braine, who did win.
...more at linkhttps://kippercentral.com/2019/10/31/ge ... what-next/