UKIP: Ms Anderson. The farce continues!

Ms Anderson ready for action

So Farage finally admits that she is a paper candidate. Pity he forgot to mention that UKIP's bent leadership had declined to inform the Leicester Branch and even the Regional Committee about her 'selection'. And what a pity he forgot to also mention that other potential candidates had been told to get lost without even the chance for an interview!

Would you really want to trust a £1 billion budget to a schoolgirl without any life experience? And to have Lisa 'about as useful as a chocolate teapot ' Duffy 'overseeing' the campaign is just the icing on the cake! Any crass decision by Fuhrer Farage!

From The Leicester Mercury:

UKIP leader Nigel Farage has admitted the party's mayoral election nominee is 'a paper candidate'.

Regine Anderson has not appeared at any hustings and has not canvassed for votes.

The party has repeatedly declined to supply any contact information for the A-level student and has only been able to issue one photograph of her.

UKIP declined to give any details of where Ms Anderson was studying, her background or plans for the city.

Asked whether Ms Anderson was a paper candidate – where someone stands but makes no real attempt to win – Mr Farage said: "Yes, I suppose you could call her that.

"But by standing she is giving people a choice to vote for UKIP.

"We're the only party which says grants for a university education should be brought back.

"That's a big issue for young people and that's why she's standing.

"She doesn't have time to campaign because of her upcoming A-levels."

When it was put to Mr Farage that independent candidate Mu-Hamid Pathan, 18, has appeared at hustings despite also studying for his A-levels, he said: "Well, we'll see who gets the best A-level results, then."

Mr Farage said UKIP was taking the election seriously.

He said: "We've got a city centre campaign office, our party's head of policy is running in the by-election and we've stood a candidate in the mayoral election.

"We've got candidates standing in wards across the city."

In a written statement, Ms Anderson said she was standing from the "depths of my revision notes" and did not have time to canvass for votes.

"There may be people asking why I put myself forward for such a position if I couldn't make the time to canvass.

"It's certainly not from a lack of respect for the position but because I am standing to highlight an issue which will affect thousands of young people."

Mr Pathan said he had managed to campaign and attend hustings despite having exams two weeks after election day.

He said: "I combine revision with campaigning and I'm predicted to get top grades in my exams."

The controversy comes after UKIP's Leicester South parliamentary by-election hopeful condemned Islam in his blog.

Abhijit Pandya called the religion "morally flawed and degenerate".

Mr Pandya issued a statement yesterday apologising for including the phrase "forced repatriation" in his blog.

He said: "This does not accurately convey the point I was trying to make and is not in any way part of UKIP policy.

"The point I was trying to make is that under current immigration controls, it is extremely difficult to deport illegal arrivals who have never contributed to the economy."

To see the original: LINK

And this is what some readers of the original article had to say! Please note that one of them is by the UKIP Leicester West Chairman. He is far from happy! A farce of a candidate and a farce of a party!

Anyone ever wonder about how Farage prnounces his name?

If he succh a patriot shouldn't it be pronounced Farr-idge? Thoreau, Leicester

UKIP are obviously a farce of a party m, le3

If UKIP are so intent on losing their deposit couldn't they just have donated it to a worthy local cause?... I'd have had more respect for them if they had done so, rather than go through with this nonsense... Graham, Whetstone

I am the UKIP Leicester West branch manager. These two candidates do not represent the local UKIP candidates for the council elections. A paper candidate for the mayoral election is a joke, and Abhijit needs to be sacked from his post of 'head of policy' for his comments on his blog.

There is so much more at stake at a national level regarding the undemocratic EU, to have UKIPs name dragged through the mud in Leicester.

The people of Leicester deserve better than what they were offered here. To that end, I offer a personal apology to the people of Leicester, on behalf of the UKIP Leicester branch. Stuart Young, Leicester

Perhaps it should be renamed:

United Kingdom Invisible Party

Tranparent politics at last.. Kulgan, Crydee

How can Farage say UKIP is taking this Election seriously?!! They have put up a candidate no-one has seen, no-one knows and someone who has shown complete and utter contempt for this important Election.

It is no wonder people take little or no notice of what UKIP stand for yet, amazingly, folk will still vote for them. David, Great Easton, Rural Leicestershire.