C_steam

Indeed. MKPD is back.

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Hartlepool

Today is a good day for UKIP and this country with its first MP on board.

Also,mkpd is back again and thats good as well.

Hartlepool

Can anyone say which party in HoC comes in as the 4th largest party regards the number of MPs they have in the HoC?

We need a couple of more MPs to move over to our side of the street,then,just watch the political spit hit the fans in this country,the Communist styled European Union and probably the rest of the world in due time.

Hartlepool

Watch out though,the anti UK,pro commie, Bear, will soon be by to diss everything in sight regards the UK.

Anthony Butcher

BBC NEWS | Politics | Deselection row MP leaves Tories
It looks like he was effectively deselected by his Tory constituency and then it is a little blurry about whether he left or was kicked out by the national party.

And doesn't defection require leaving one party and then joining another? Spink became independent on the 12th March it would appear and then joined UKIP on 21st April over a month later. Hence he didn't leave the Tories in order to join UKIP.

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Raymond Finch

My understanding is that some members of his constituency party tried twice (and failed twice) to deselect him. When they tried a third time he complained to CCHQ and then when they failed to take effective action, he left.
As for leaving and joining another party.
Who cares? He is with UKIP now.

arden forester

How can anyone vote moderately?

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Alex McKee

It's calculated by comparing the various different votes.

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blueblood1920

Personally from a BNP perspective this isnt that bad, short term you may get a bit of publicity but nothing different there. Long Term you are unlikely to hold the seat, if UKIP loses this seat then it would be devestating to the party and a big moral drop for its members for losing their only MP.

Also BNP did not stand in this seat last time, they are probably likely to do so now and if it means causing UKIP to lose the seat then they may put in a effort.

However May the 1st is now even more important than ever before, if UKIP fail to hold 2 seats on the GLA then it would make it look harder for them to hold Spinks seat and would also be a moral downer to their members. Also is spink loyal or an opportunist and if he sees UKIP not doing that good will he stick around?

I guess that the BNP researchers will be working on Spink now to uncover anything which should be highlighted in the interests of the tax payer like they have been doing with many other MP's and Organisations.

However from an anti-EU view I hope UKIP actually manage to throw a spanner in the works, however I dont expect much as UKIP seems to be useless.

Tony Bennett

Yes, a good day for UKIP, but only quite good.

For after Ashley 'Housing Benefit Fraud' Mote, Tom 'Peugeot' Wise and Robert 'Never seen in the East Midlands' Kilroy-Silk, comes: Bob
'Janet, Charlotte and Ashleigh' Spink.

Good luck UKIP!

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Second Tory MP caught in Commons staffing row after employing daughter, ex-wife and ex-lover's girl

By GLEN OWEN - 'Mail on Sunday'

Last updated at 14:46pm on 3rd February 2008

A second Tory MP was dragged into the row over Commons staff last night – for employing his lover's daughter when she was still a sixth-form pupil.

Ashleigh Sharp has been Bob Spink's parliamentary assistant since 2006, when she was just 17 and enrolled at a sixth-form college in Benfleet, Essex.

Miss Sharp, the daughter of Mr Spink's former partner, Gail Boland, is now paid more than £5,000 a year by the MP – despite also being a student at Buckingham University.

[PICTURE: 'Excellent value': Bob Spink (left) assures taxpayers their money was well spent in giving Ashleigh Sharp (right) a part-time job; PICTURE: Husband and wife MPs claim expenses to dodge death tax; PICTURE: Ex-Hussar Sir Nicholas Winterton, staunch defender of the trough; PICTURE: After a week of vilification, defiant Derek Conway speaks out and says: 'I did nothing wrong'; PICTURE: Peter Hain revealed as the latest MP to employ family members]

Mr Spink's taxpayer-funded payroll also includes his ex-wife, Janet, whom he divorced in 2002 and who now carries out her duties from Dorset, and his daughter, Charlotte.

The Mail on Sunday has established that Miss Sharp received £1,218 from the Commons authorities in January 2006, when she was 17 years and four months old, a further £936 in March that year and then £750 in July.

Miss Sharp was appointed while Mr Spink's relationship with Ms Boland, a Tory councillor, was ongoing, but the pair have now split up.

Last night, Miss Sharp confirmed she had worked two-and-a-half days a week in Mr Spink's Commons office when she was 17, adding: "At the moment, I'm doing weekends, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, so that's five days a week – a working week."

She refused to answer further questions about how she juggled her work and studies.

Mr Spink, the MP for Castle Point in Essex, said: "The public have got excellent value for money from all my staff, including Ashleigh.

"She is no relation but her mother and I became close friends some time after my split from my wife.

"She is at university for two half-days a week. She attends to constituency work while I am at Westminster and does work at my Westminster office when necessary.

"She works on average for two days a week – more during vacations and less during term time, which is reflected in her varying monthly pay. She has never worked full-time.

"Her total pay for 2007/08 is £5,500, equivalent to an annual salary of £15,000 [had she been full-time]."

Mr Spink said he had ensured that all his staffing arrangements were legitimate and said he would campaign for more transparency over MPs' allowances.

He said he continued to employ his ex-wife, despite her move to the West Country, because she was a "professionally qualified secretary and PA".

"I got specific clearance from the Fees Office for her continued employment, in Dorset. This arrangement is widely known in my constituency," he added.

He also employs his daughter, Charlotte, on a casual basis and paid her £4,400 in the past financial year.

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