Bill Etheridge withdraws from leadership contest and backs Paul Nuttall

Bill Etheridge has pulled out of the leadership race and is backing Paul Nuttall.

Etheridge came third in the last leadership election behind Diane James and Lisa Duffy and declared his intention to run again almost as soon as the new leadership election was announced. But in a statement today he says that Paul Nuttall is "the only person who can effectively unite our party" and urged all other candidates to drop out and let Paul win.

With the threshold for retaining a deposit set at 20% it is likely that other candidates will drop out leaving Paul Nuttall and Suzanne Evans to slug it out with the ever hopeful but unlikely contender, Raheem Kassam, tagging along.

With Bill Etheridge pulling out of the leadership race there are now seven candidates:

Andrew Beadle was the UKIP parliamentary candidate for Bermondsey & Old Southwark in the 2015 general election and for Wallington South by-election later that year.

Suzanne Evans is a former Deputy Chairman of the party and was barred from the previous leadership election as she was serving a suspension following her conduct in the London Assembly election campaign. It is very much to her credit that she stuck with UKIP despite what she and others (rightly or wrongly) felt was unfair treatment.

Raheem Kassam is the London editor of the hard right American political website, Breitbart. He was ineligible under the rules of the previous contest as he hadn't been a member for long enough but qualifies now the criteria have been relaxed.

David Kurten AM is one of the two UKIP members on the London Assembly. Kurten taught chemistry before entering politics, giving lectures all over the world. As leader he wants to make sure the country "sticks to the path of freedom".

Paul Nuttall MEP pulled out of the previous leadership election and the decision was in no small part because of threats and abuse from far left activists. As a working class, old Labour northerner Nutall is seen as a huge threat to Labour and the Corbynists in particular.

John Rees-Evans is a former member of the armed forces with homes in South Wales, France and Bulgaria. He is no little Englander (or Welsher). Rees-Evans was educated overseas in 11 different schools in 3 different countries. But he will be best known for having claimed that his horse was raped by a gay donkey.

Peter Whittle AM is a member of the London Assembly. Whittle is one of the most senior openly gay politicians in the country (UKIP MEP for Scotland, David Coburn, is another) and was the only gay candidate for London Mayor.

Paul Nuttall and Suzanne Evans join leadership contest

Paul Nuttall and Suzanne Evans have thrown their hats into the ring for the re-run of the leadership election following Diane Evans' resignation after just 18 days.

Evans was barred from the previous leadership election as she was serving a suspension following her conduct in the London Assembly election campaign. It is very much to her credit that she stuck with UKIP despite what she and others (rightly or wrongly) felt was unfair treatment.

Nuttall pulled out of the previous leadership election and the decision was in no small part because of threats and abuse from far left activists. As a working class, old Labour northerner Nutall is seen as a huge threat to Labour and the Corbynists in particular.

London Assembly member Peter Whittle was an unexpected addition to the leadership race when he announced his candidacy a little under a fortnight ago. Whittle is one of the most senior openly gay politicians in the country (UKIP MEP for Scotland, David Coburn, is another) and was the only gay candidate for London Mayor.

West Midlands MEP, Bill Etheridge, is the only candidate from the previous contest to put himself forward again. He came third behind Diane James and Lisa Duffy and ahead of Phillip Broughton and Liz Jones.

The final declared candidate so far is the London editor of the hard right American political website, Breitbart, Raheem Kassam. Kassam was ineligible under the rules of the previous contest as he hadn't been a member for long enough but qualifies now the criteria have been relaxed.

Today's personal attack on Bill Etheridge MEP is unacceptable

The invasion of +Bill Etheridge MEP's privacy by his ex-girlfriend today is not acceptable.

Lorraine Chew posted a picture of Viagra with a box showing that it had been prescribed to Etheridge on Twitter, accusing him of having an affair. She later deleted the picture along with tweets endorsing his rivals in the leadership campaign.

Bill is thick skinned but it was a very personal attack on him and goes far beyond what elements of their personal life a public figure should be expected to accept being made public. No matter how upset you are with someone, this sort of behaviour is unacceptable and the press should certainly have recognised that this simply was not a matter of public interest and shouldn't have been given the oxygen of publicity.

Bill Etheridge MEP calls for UKIP to cut ties with fundamentalist Christian group

UKIP West Midlands MEP, Bill Etheridge, has urged the party to cut all ties with the Christian Soldiers of UKIP group.

Christian Soldiers of UKIP is a fringe group set up by a UKIP member which has caused controversy with inflammatory comments, particularly about gay people which they seem to have a borderline obsession with. One of their supporters wrote them a letter which they published in one of their newsletters last year describing a gay pride march as a "display of wickedness" and a "parade of depravity".

Not only are Christian Soldiers of UKIP bringing the party into disrepute with their offensive behaviour, they misrepresent party policy as well. They don't represent the views of the party or the majority of its membership and they are harming the party's prospects, not improving them.

This isn't about free speech, it's about not tolerating bigotry and homophobia. It's time this divisive group of medieval homophobes were consigned to the history books.

Young Independence West Midlands Conference

Tory PPC for Dudley North tries to recruit EDL to campaign for him

The Conservative candidate for Dudley North, Afzal Amin, has been suspended after trying to get the EDL to fake a protest in Dudley and break election law by paying EDL supporters to campaign for him.

Amin met with the leader of the EDL, Steve Eddowes and former leader Tommy Robinson on several occasions. During these meetings he asked them to announce a protest in Dudley that would never happen so that he could claim to have convinced them to back down and look good to voters. He also said he wanted to pay Tommy Robinson to get EDL supporters to campaign for him which is illegal.

The prospect of another EDL protest so soon after the previous one which resulted in a number of arrests of far left thugs from Unite Against Fascism would have inflamed racial tensions and spread fear far beyond Dudley. Amin clearly gives no thought to the effects of his dishonest scaremongering and only cares about winning the election, even if he has to break the law in the process.

Dudley North is a key marginal currently held by Labour's Ian Austin MP and a UKIP target seat. Polls show that UKIP's Bill Etheridge MEP is drawing level with Austin with the Tories a distant, vote-splitting third. They had very little chance of winning Dudley North before this story, they won't even be coming close now. The best thing the Conservatives can do to prevent Labour winning is sack Amin and not bother replacing him because a vote for the Conservatives in Dudley North is a vote for Ian Austin and Ed Miliband.

UKIP MEP and Dudley councillor calls for business as usual during EDL/UAF protest

West Midlands MEP and Dudley councillor, Bill Etheridge, has called for business as usual tomorrow as up to 2,000 EDL supporters and anti-fascist thugs descend on the town.

Dudley has been the scene of a number of EDL protests and violent counter protests and the planned mega-mosque in Dudley has attracted widespread criticism, not least from UKIP who have led the peaceful protest against it.

Cllr Etheridge said:

We have asked people not to go to the EDL demonstration as it is just self gratification on the group's part.

UKIP campaign office opens in Wolverhampton

UKIP have opened a campaign office in Wolverhampton which will double up as a "satellite office" for Bill Etheridge MEP.

The two story office will house a call centre and will be manned by volunteers helping the UKIP campaign in Wolverhampton and South Staffordshire.

Wolverhampton has suffered badly from a downturn in the retail sector with 17% of shops left empty. Sitting on the north west fringe of the West Midlands conurbation, Wolverhampton struggles to compete with Birmingham and the Merry Hill Centre which are fairly centrally located whilst Telford and Stafford intercept shoppers from the north and east. Wolverhampton city centre needs significant investment to drive regeneration and make the city centre more attractive to shoppers who have no shortage of alternatives and this is one of Wolverhampton UKIP's key policies.