And so the very public spat continues.......
From The TelegraphUkip MEP Marta Andreasen is threatened with deselection after Neil Hamilton accusations
Marta Andreasen, the Ukip MEP, has been threatened with deselection by Steve Crowther, the party chairman, after she was accused of spreading false rumours.
Nigel Farage and Marta Andreasen
in happier times Photo: EDDIE
MULHOLLAND
7:30AM GMT 10 Jan 2013
111 Comments
Mandrake’s disclosure on Sunday that Neil Hamilton, who is now a leading
member of Ukip, had accused Marta Andreasen, one of the
party’s members of the European Parliament of spreading “false rumours” about
him and his wife, Christine, has had rapid consequences.
The chairman of the Right-wing party, Steve Crowther, has threatened
Andreasen, a former European Commission whistleblower, with deselection. “I am
appalled that a senior member of the party should behave in this manner,” he
thunders in an email. “You seem unable to work as part of a team or fulfil the
commitments you made when adopted as a Ukip candidate.
“You were wrong to state that sitting MEPs will not know whether they are to
be reselected until just before the election. The first stage in whatever
process is adopted will be for the party to assess, early in 2013, whether its
sitting MEPs deserve to be given any further opportunity to represent it in
parliament.”
Andreasen had alleged that Hamilton, who was elected to Ukip’s national
executive committee last year, and his wife were being lined up for seats in the
European Parliament, thanks to manipulation of the selection process for
candidates.
“While we learn about this selection procedure, we are also hearing rumours
about … the Hamiltons having already been given top positions on the list in
… the South West,” said the Spanish accountant.
Hamilton, who lost the fourth safest Tory seat in Britain after the
“cash-for-questions affair”, replied: “As you may know, I am a barrister by
profession and a very experienced libel litigant. Your email is defamatory and
damaging to Christine and my reputations. We require you to send an apology and
retraction.”
In a response that she forwarded to every constituency chairman in the south of England, Andresen said: “Neil’s email is an attempt to deflect from the points that I was making. He has [not] attempted to rebuff the claim that the now highly centralised NEC and the party leader have taken over the placement of candidates on the list in something that I have to say really resembles a totalitarian party.”
She added: “It is disgraceful that, as an elected representative of the British people, I am threatened in such a way following a communication to my voters. Ukip executive should not tolerate this behaviour, but I only get silence from that corner.”
To read the original: LINK
In a response that she forwarded to every constituency chairman in the south of England, Andresen said: “Neil’s email is an attempt to deflect from the points that I was making. He has [not] attempted to rebuff the claim that the now highly centralised NEC and the party leader have taken over the placement of candidates on the list in something that I have to say really resembles a totalitarian party.”
She added: “It is disgraceful that, as an elected representative of the British people, I am threatened in such a way following a communication to my voters. Ukip executive should not tolerate this behaviour, but I only get silence from that corner.”
To read the original: LINK