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Tuesday, 1 February 2011

UKIP: More on Nikki Sinclaire's fight for justice

From the Parliament.com:

UKIP lodges appeal in MEP discrimination case

A discrimination case brought against UKIP by British independent MEP Nikki Sinclaire is to be reheard, it has emerged.

Sinclaire brought a case of sexual orientation discrimination against the party after she had the whip removed by UKIP leader Nigel Farage.

The party made no defence when she lodged a discrimination suit against it and a default judgment was made in her favour.

But UKIP subsequently said it had failed to lodge a response because of an administrative error and that an application for the judgment to be set aside had been filed.

The date for the employment tribunal hearing, probably at Exeter, in south-west England, is yet to be fixed.

Sinclaire, who now sits as an independent in parliament, told this website she had "mixed feelings" about the initial tribunal ruling.

She said, "I was hoping the whole thing would be over by now but, clearly, it isn't. I was pleased the tribunal ruled in my favour, not least because it agreed that the allegations I made against UKIP were well-founded.

"However, UKIP has applied to have the ruling set aside and it just leaves me saddened by how all this has turned out.

"I have been trying to work for an out-of-court settlement but at no point did UKIP agree to this."

Sinclaire had the whip removed in January last year after she refused to sit with members of the far-right Italian party Lega Nord, claiming some of its members were homophobic.

Meanwhile, Sinclaire said she was still waiting to hear from parliament about her complaint that UKIP deputy Godfrey Bloom had verbally abused her.

She claims he called her a "queer" as he passed her in a corridor in the Strasbourg parliament.


To see the original: LINK

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