Tory rebel Bob Spink becomes Ukip's first MP !!!!

Anthony Butcher · 23-04-2008, 11:50 PM

ePolitix.com - Spink becomes first UKIP MP

Quote:

Bob Spink has become the UK Independence Party's first ever MP.
The Castle Point MP left the Conservatives last month over a row with constituency activists and has now joined the anti-EU party.
Spink told Tuesday's Telegraph newspaper: "I am delighted to join the UKIP team, helping to fight for Britain's interests in Europe and for better policy on the issues that really matter to people.
"I have been increasingly disappointed with the Tory Party's failure to be honest with the public on a wide range of issues like pensions, crime, immigration and defence.
"Dishonesty over the EU constitution is the Tories' greatest failure. They heap criticism on other parties, but refuse to remove the constitution if they ever get power.
"The public see this as opportunistic and hypocritical, but sadly, it is typical of Westminster politics. It is little wonder the public hold politicians in such contempt."
UKIP leader Nigel Farage, one of the party's 10 MEPs, said: "I am delighted to welcome the hard-working and deeply principled Bob Spink as UKIP's first member of Parliament."
UKIP peer Lord Willoughby de Broke added: "I am thrilled that UKIP now has a representative in the House of Commons.
"I look forward to working with him to further UKIP's programme of leaving the European Union."

Anthony Butcher · 23-04-2008, 11:52 PM

Man in a Shed: Bob Spink makes a potentially fatal mistake

Quote:

And I don't mean defecting to UKIP. Rather he should initiated a bye-election for Castle Point.

The risk is that he loses his seat, but the reward is to fight an election without being spectacularly out gunned by national general election campaign.

If I had been in his shoes I would have sought a new mandate almost straight away. It would have been seen as principled and would have allowed a party like UKIP to concentrate forces to have a fighting chance of success. Instead they have allowed the prospect of having an MP for up to two years to get the better of them.

Fortune favours the brave and small parties have to ride their luck - and today UKIP have failed the test.

Anthony Butcher · 23-04-2008, 11:53 PM

Ex-Tory MP Spink defects to UKIP | The News is NowPublic.com

Quote:

The UK parliament now has its first UK Independence Party member of parliament (MP). Up until now the UKIP has only had a presence on the European Parliament in Brussels, and the UK has several UKIP MEPs (members of the European parliament). The aprty is centred chiefly around the desire to remove the United Kingdom from the EU, although it also embraces other anti-immigration and anti-globalisation themes. In its domestic policy stances, it is similar in some ways to the British National Party.

Anthony Butcher · 23-04-2008, 11:54 PM

ITV Local Meridian and Thames Valley: Phil Horby: UKIP enters Westminster

Quote:

UKIP are celebrating today - they have their first MP at Westminster. And I am partly responsible.

Castle Point MP Bob Spink (pictured right) left the Tory party last month, and said he would continue in the Commons as an Independent Conservative. But behind the scenes, UKIP leader and South East MEP Nigel Farage was busy wooing Mr Spink, and this morning the defection was announced at a news conference held in one of the Commons' old committee rooms.

And yes, unwittingly, I am the man who brought them together. In 2003, the House of Commons Press Gallery held a dinner to celebrate its bicentenary. I invited a group of parliamentarians, from all different parties, to celebrate with us. Among them were Messrs Farage and Spink, who, purely by chance, were seated next to each other. They’d never met before in their lives. Today Mr Farage told us that was the moment his friendship with Bob Spink began, and today, five years later, we saw the result.

It's a coup for UKIP, and really the only way they can expect to get representation at Westminster. The chances of UKIP actually winning a parliamentary seat under the first-past-the-post system are as remote as ever.

It's a different matter in the European Parliament, of course. Proportional representation means smaller parties have a much better chance of being elected. It was the Meridian region which elected the first ever UKIP MEPs in 1999, and the Meridian region which returned the largest number in 2004.

Their most high-profile MEP then was elected in the East Midlands - none other than Robert Kilroy Silk, the former Labour MP and TV presenter. His victory gave UKIP fabulous publicity at the time, although the love affair was short-lived and Kilroy Silk soon fell out with just about everyone in UKIP and ended up setting up his own political party in a blaze of publicity. He was going to transform the system with a brand new kind of honest politics, he told us all. But it didn't happen, of course. Hands up anyone who can remember what his party was even called?

It's unlikely Bob Spink will go his own way anytime soon, but UKIP's enemies - and there are lots of them - are already predicting a disastrous clash of egos between Messrs Spink and Farage.

Mr Farage seemed remarkably relaxed about everything when I spoke to him today - just delighted at last to have a UKIP presence on the Commons green benches.

And people underestimate UKIP at their peril. In the early days, they were dismissed by many critics as, at best, an irrelevance, and, at worst, an undisciplined bunch of nutters. Now they have representation in the European Parliament (where, incidentally they outnumber the UK Greens 9 - 2), the House of Lords and the House of Commons.

As for Bob Spink, he faced the inevitable question today: The people of Castle Point voted you in as a Conservative MP, so now you've changed parties, why not stand down and fight a by-election? To which he gave the inevitable response: The people of Castle Point didn't vote for the Conservative Party in 2005, they voted for Bob Spink.

Well, that's as may be. The Conservatives say you could hear the popping of champagne corks at their party HQ this morning. In other words, good riddance. And the Tories can afford to be fairly unruffled by a UKIP defection at the moment. After all, it's the economy, not Europe, which is dominating politics. Nevertheless, recent history tells us that if UKIP get, say, 1000 votes in a marginal seat in a general election, that can be the difference between victory and defeat.

The Meridian region has the most marginal seats in the country - especially in Kent and Bob Spink's Essex. To reduce the impact of UKIP at the next election, the Conservatives must do their best to neutralise Europe as an issue. UKIP's plan is the exact opposite, and Mr Farage, with his new MP Mr Spink, will be pulling out all the stops between now and polling day.

Oh, and congratulations if you remembered the name of Robert Kilroy Silk's party - Veritas!

kernow · 24-04-2008, 12:53 AM

Steady now Anthony you're almost out posting Britannist, Looking for holes in UKIPs luck!

Mikeuk · 24-04-2008, 06:59 AM

Quote:

That led to chief whip Patrick McLoughlin withdrawing the whip prior to Mr Spink's resignation, a claim Mr Spink dismissed as "brass-knecked dishonesty".

I remember Patrick McLoughlin from the YCs. He's a semi-literate little sh*t who is barely capable of stringing together two words of English. He's one of their whips purely because he's a crude, unprincipled thug.

I would probably have lasted about one day as a Tory MP. The moment McLoughlin came up breathing his halitosis-ridden threats I would have decked the ugly gutersnipe.

Hartlepool · 24-04-2008, 07:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kernow

Steady now Anthony you're almost out posting Britannist, Looking for holes in UKIPs luck!

Anthony Butcher,spamming his own site just to have another petty dig at UKIP.

How silly and immature that is.

Anthony Butcher · 24-04-2008, 09:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hartlepool

Anthony Butcher,spamming his own site just to have another petty dig at UKIP.

How silly and immature that is.

Que?

I was just posting all of the substantial blog coverage, most of which is positive.... I am not sure how that is either spamming or attacking UKIP..?

Hartlepool · 24-04-2008, 10:00 AM

Yehhhh,right.

Anthony Butcher · 24-04-2008, 10:29 AM

New Statesman - What a load of Hoey

Quote:

Further news on Tuesday morning was that the sacked MP Bob Spink had crossed over to Ukip. Spink is not thought to be a great loss. How buoyant the Tories are is reflected in their ability not to give a damn that this man-weasel has fled. A couple of years ago, if a Tory MP had defected anywhere, there would have been rumours of splits. Today, they appear unfazed. "I thought he had already gone," said one.

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24-04-2008, 12:53 AM	#175 (permalink)
kernow Uber Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Posts: 5,014	Steady now Anthony you're almost out posting Britannist, Looking for holes in UKIPs luck!

24-04-2008, 10:00 AM	#179 (permalink)
Hartlepool Uber Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: North East England Posts: 6,660 Party: Free England Party	Yehhhh,right.