Andrew Smith: Eastern Region wannabe MEP

Andrew Smith is hardly the sort of man I would want as my elected representative. A man who can suggest misleading the Electoral Commission is surely unfit for any office.

Here is an extract from an email written by Andrew Smith and sent to senior members of UKIP in April 2006:

“We need to give the Electoral Commission every reason to believe we are serious about compliance, in order to provide the next party treasurer with a good story to tell when we next fail to meet the statutory requirements.”

This email is taken from an article entitled ‘UKIP in embezzlement scandal’ written by Daniel Foggo and published in the Sunday Times on 25th February 2007. Mr Smith was Party Treasurer at the time of the email. The email refers to donations made by Alan Bown who is UKIP’s main financial backer. At the time of the donations he was not on the electoral register. Under current electoral law this is illegal.

Any other party would have refused to even consider Smith as a candidate for a position on a parish council after sending such an email. However, this is UKIP! Consider the signatures on his MEP nomination paper: Nigel Farage MEP, Jeffrey Titford MEP, John Whittaker MEP, Stuart Agnew, Marta Andreasen and Michael McGough. What does that say about their integrity? After all, would you be willing to back a man who advised senior UKIP members to mislead the Electoral Commission?

Does anyone out there still think that Mr Smith is a fit man to represent UKIP as an MEP candidate?