Peter Whittle drops out of leadership race

Peter Whittle is the latest contender to drop out of the leadership race and is giving his support to Paul Nuttall.

Whittle is one of UKIP's two members on the London Assembly and one of the UK's most senior openly gay politicians. He is the the party's culture spokesman.

There are now just three contenders in the race: Suzanne Evans, Paul Nuttall MEP and John Rees-Evans.

Andew Beadle withdraws from leadership race and endorses Paul Nuttall

Andrew Beadle is the latest candidate to withdraw from the leadership contest and back Paul Nuttall.

His decision follows yesterday's announcement by Bill Etheridge MEP that he, too, was pulling out of the race and endorsing Nuttall to be the next party leader.

Paul Nuttall has received the backing of a number of high profile members, including five MEPs, the UKIP groups on Bolton and Thanet councils and the UKIP group leader on Hartlepool Council as well as former UKIP MEP Godfrey Bloom and former leader fot he party, Lord Pearson of Rannoch.

A poll of 91 UKIP councillors for the Times puts Paul Nuttall way out in front with 42% of the vote, followed by Suzanne Evans on 22%, Raheem Kassam on 9% and Peter Whittle on 1%. None of the other current candidates are included in the poll but it is unlikely to make a difference to the outcome.

Suzanne Evans has yet to announce any of her high profile backers, presumably keeping her powder dry for later in the campaign. Raheem Kassam has the support of UKIP's second largest donor and Leave.EU founder, Aaron Banks.

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.

Paul Nuttall appointed leader of UKIP MEPs

Paul Nuttall MEP has been appointed group leader of the UKIP delegation in the EU Parliament.

Nuttall was elected as an MEP for the north west of England in 2009 and was re-elected in last year's historic EU elections which saw UKIP gain the most MEPs of any UK party.

Don't make our heroes beg for more

I spent most of today following Jill Seymour and Nigel Farage around the West Midlands to campaign against HS2, support UKIP in Cannock and then watch the unveiling of UKIP's defence policy at Himley Hall near Dudley.

We started the day in Marston in Staffordshire, a village that will literally be ripped apart by HS2. I saw first hand the impact that HS2 is going to have on our green and pleasant land. The farm that we met at is going to be cut in half by the railway line. The farm buildings are going to be knocked down and the farm house will be no more than 100 yards from the track. The lovely big house over the road is going to be demolished.

UKIP's new anti-HS2 ad lorry supporting the +STOP HS2 n alliance

I can't remember which candidate this car belongs to but it's certainly a statement!

The turnout in Cannock was fantastic. Loads of encouragement from local residents and when Nigel Farage arrived he was mobbed by supporters. He made a sharp exit when a couple of known Hate not Hope agitators were spotted and who can blame him after the physical attacks he's received at the hands of HnH thugs?

After Cannock it was on to Himley Hall for UKIP's defence policy announcement with Paul Nuttall, Bill Etheridge, Nigel Farage and Mike Hookem. Most of the guests were former armed services personnel and Mike Hookem received a standing ovation.

You can find details of UKIP's new defence policy on the UKIP website or just read the salient points from our Twitter feed for today.

North East Conference - 7th February at Hartlepool Borough Hall

Hartlepool’s Borough Hall will play host to the most exciting North East conference to date, with many high profile speakers lined up to take part in the days events.

Some of the confirmed speakers include Party Leader Nigel Farage MEP, Deputy Leader Paul Nuttall MEP and UKIP's Communities spokesman Amjad Bashir.

Parliamentary candidates from across the North East region, along with the North East MEP, will be available for all delegates to speak with and ask their questions. A buffet lunch with drinks will be provided for all delegates at lunch time and the licensed bar will be available during the day.

Click here for more details.

Belfast UUP councillor defects to UKIP

The former Lord Mayor of Belfast, Cllr Bob Stoker, has defected from the Ulster Unionist Party to UKIP.

UKIP Northern Ireland chairman, David McNarry MLA and Deputy Chairman of the national party, Paul Nuttall, welcomed Bob to the party in Belfast yesterday.

Paul Nuttall MEP gets into a spot of bother in Bulgaria

UKIP MEP for the north east of England, Paul Nuttall, has been in a spot of bother in Romania and Bulgaria after warning about the impending flood of Romanian and Bulgarian immigrants in the Bulgarian capital, Sofia.

Paul visited a Roma gypsy slum in Sofia and commented that such slums shouldn't exist these days and that minorities should be integrated into society.  Some Bulgarians took exception to the idea that the Roma, who are considered second class citizens by large sections of society, should be considered equal to non-Roma and protested outside the British embassy.  Similar protests took place in Romania.  In both countries far right groups were the instigators.

From the 1st of January next year, 30 million of the poorest people in Europe will be entitled to live and work in the UK and thanks to economically and socially damaging EU rules, all a Romanian or Bulgarian immigrant needs to do to claim benefits from the day they arrive in the UK is register as self employed.  With an average wage of just €393 per month in Bulgaria and €479 in Romania, there's plenty of motivation for the average self employed plumber or builder to come here where they can claim that sort of money in benefits for a week.

Alone? We're already Alone.

In terms of trade, Germany and Britain are meant to be. In sickness and in health, even if they can't stand the decisions their soul mate make. Well, money mates. Neither one can intentionally isolate from the other because it would lead to the financial collapse; or at least decline, of both superpowers. Therefore, the supreme leaders of Europe, i.e. The Germans, can't even consider the isolation of Britain if we were to depart from the EU. But that is the mere scrape of the UK/EU issue.

The European Commission made it perfectly clear to UKIP Deputy Leader, Paul Nuttall MEP, if we were to carry on bombarding the establishment with our (wonderful) nonsense, they will... Relegate us to the status of Switzerland. Dam that's terrifying! Wait a minute, isn't Switzerland that prosperous global nation? Being a member of the European Free Trade Association, they are part of the European Union Internal Market through the Agreement on a European Economic Area (EEA), which took effect in 1994. To every threat an EU leader makes; every attempt to scare monger our weak, apprehensive and cryptic Prime Minister, there's a cascade of good news for the vision of an Independent Britain.

What is better than Briton's being legally able to freely trade with our true allies, the Commonwealth? Whist Cameron gets some sort of thrill out of getting attacked left, right and center (and that can be taken politically and literally), Ukip can see developed market economies emerged or emerging from Australia,  New Zealand, Jamaica, Canada, South Africa, India and many more. In the case of India, we should not be wasting billions on aid just to feed their endless plight. We should not bow to an Indian government which spends “tens of billions” on defense including the £13 billion deal we may have lost to the French, which makes it unacceptable to give further aid. Let's stimulate jobs and growth in India's poorest areas through interjecting trade, technical expertise and experience. In addition, Australia is crucial because it hosts a growing economy; a stable political and business environment; a skilled, well educated and multi-lingual workforce; a strategic time-zone and a competitive cost base. I can see a British-Irish union being the power house to such a bountiful friendship as we might never be one but we will, by no doubt, have a far more fruitful relationship than the present with a German lady who flirts with a Frenchmen's anti-British mantas.

I've always had a vision of a Britannia which will not be ordered and regulated by Europe, nevertheless free trade and the peace process in Europe is essential. However, the sort of EU project amplified by the Lisbon Treaty provides me a dire image of what awaits national sovereignty and identity across Europe, with Barroso's vision of a "Federal Europe" making the thought more tangible than ever.  I see it as our responsibility to lead Europe out of this disastrous and monolithic EU, and into the EFTA because - I know - that cherished 1940's spirit still lives inside us somewhere.

Paul Nuttall impresses on Question Time

UKIP MEP and Deputy Leader, Paul Nuttall, put in a fantastic first appearance on BBC Question Time on Thursday night, attracting applause every time he spoke.

The Minister for Communication, Ed Vazey's attempts to emulate Boris Johnson's air of foppish buffoonery failed to make him a hit with the audience and he spent most of his time with his face in his hands and a look that said "why did I agree to this"?  Rather amusingly he argued that his government's Workfare programme was voluntary and had to be informed that it is, in fact, mandatory and those who refuse to take part lose their benefits.

The Labour Shadow Attorney General, Emily Thornberry, was pretty stereotypical of female Labour MPs and dropped a bit of a clanger by saying that Syrian rebels had  plenty of weapons and didn't need any more.  This on the day after a reporter had just been killed by a rocket fired by the Syrian army into a house in a residential area and amid reports from all sorts of agencies about the atrocities being caused by the Syrian authorities.

The other two guests were Cristina Odone, the Telegraph reporter, and the historian, Simon Schama.  Simon Schama got the biggest laugh when asked for an opinion about Rupert Murdoch starting the Sun on Sunday and replied something along the lines of "there are very few things in this world I don't give a damn about and this is one of them".

Paul Nuttall was by far the most convincing, most popular and most human of the panelists.  Small wonder than the phrase "Paul Nuttall" was the #1 trend in the UK on Twitter after the programme and #4 in the world.

Paul Nuttall MEP: Save the Union

Paul Nuttall on Channel 4 tomorrow

Paul Nuttall MEP is on The Political Spot on Channel 4 tomorrow at 6:55pm talking about the Union for the Future policy.

There has been a great deal of interest in the policy which calls for a renewal of the union on a federal basis with effective and equal devolved government for all four member states of the UK.  That interest has resulted in a number of new members and defections from other parties, mostly from the English Democrats.

I'm told that the policy has a couple of gaps that need addressing before it is published in full and that it will definitely be for devolved government with a devolved executive (ie. an English Parliament) and not a Grand Committee of British MPs elected in England as claimed by one of the English Democrats' main financiers.

UKIP now supports devolution

The big thing to come out of UKIP's conference in Eastbourne this weekend for me was the release of a policy paper entitled "A Union for the Future".

The policy paper, written by Paul Nuttall MEP, is a complete rewrite of UKIP's badly written, unworkable devolution policy which basically involved abolishing the devolved governments in Scotland and Wales (but not NI) and replacing them with Grand Committees of British MPs.

This new policy paper has no such retrograde suggestions in it.  The current British House of Commons would be replaced with an English Parliament with English MPs, an English Executive and an English First Minister.  The House of Lords would be replaced by the British Parliament with British MPs, the British Executive and the British Prime Minister and will scrutinise legislation for all four home nations.

There are a couple of gaps in the policy paper but then it is only a two-page précis.  One question I would like answered is what changes would be made to the Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly and Northern Irish Assembly?  Will the powers they have be equalised with that of the Scottish and English Parliaments?  The policy is very anglo-centric so some questions need answering about how it will affect Scotland, Wales and NI when the policy paper is expanded upon.

Since this policy was announced there have been a few threads on the UKIP members' forum on it with the usual suspects scaremongering about devolution, claiming that it's the same thing as devolution, expensive, creates more politicians, etc.  So here is a list of devolution myths peddled by Big Britishers (the opposite to Little Englanders) debunked:

• Devolution means breaking up the union
  Breaking up the union would be independence. Devolution is inherently unionist because you can't devolve power from the union government if the union doesn't exist to have a government. Devolution can only exist for as long as the union exists.
• Devolution means more tiers of government
  The policy paper written by Paul Nuttall sees the regional tier of government in England being abolished when the English Parliament is created.  The two tiers of the British government would also be replaced by one.  That's a net reduction of one tier of government.
• Devolution means more expense
  Paul Nuttall has clearly used the paper Chris Gill submitted to a House of Lords committee when he was Conservative MP for Ludlow as a base for his policy paper.  In that paper Chris detailed the basic cost savings that could be realised by making these changes.  Adjusted for current salaries and numbers of peers, the cost savings amount to almost half a billion a year.
• This is playing into the EU's hands
  The EU has divided the UK into 12 euroregions.  Three of them coincide with national borders - Scotland, Wales and NI - but the other 9 are a dismemberment of England.  Establishing a national Parliament for the whole of England and doing away with the EU's regional government goes against what the EU wants.
• There is no support for devolutionIndependent opinion polls consistently put support for either banning MPs not elected in England from voting on English laws or for creating an English Parliament at 7 out of 10.  As the former is an unworkable mess that doesn't actually address the core problem of having no politicians elected to represent English interests, the latter is the only option.
  
• We already have an English Parliament: Westminster
  Westminster is home to the British government which is made up of British MPs elected in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.  Being elected to an English constituency doesn't make a British MP an English MP.  There hasn't been an English Parliament since 1707.
• There's no votes in it
  Being the only party opposing membership of the EU hasn't got us an MP elected but it doesn't mean there are no votes in it, it means that voters think their vote will be wasted if they vote for UKIP or we don't offer enough policies they can support.  The reason the English Democrats haven't seen any real electoral success is because they are a tiny party crippled with debt and an ineffectual and toxic leadership and are being over-run with BNP members, not because their core message doesn't resonate with voters.
• It will alienate Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish voters
  How could anyone object to making England equal to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland?  If it does then that says a lot about the people we're supposedly united with and UKIP has never retained a deposit in any Westminster or devolved election, should we discriminate against the 50m people who vote for us in large enough numbers to retain deposits so as not to upset the 10m who don't?
• Our current policy is good enough
  No, really it's not.  There are so many reasons why it's wrong.  Here are a few ...
• The Scots would declare independence if you tried to take their government away from them.
• A Grand Committee of British MPs elected in British constituencies in Scotland and Wales to the British government is several retrograde steps back from Scottish and Welsh politicians elected in Scotland and Welsh constituencies in Scotland and Wales to a Scottish or Welsh government.
• What happens if a British MP elected in England votes on something good for Britain and bad for England when they're sitting as the British Grand Committee and then it comes up when they're sitting as the English Grand Committee?  Do they denounce themselves and censure their own vote?
• What happens when a bill is presented to the British Grand Committee that requires a change to the law in England, Scotland, Wales and NI?  As the British MP introducing it will also be a member of one of the national Grand Committees it's highly likely it will occur.  Will part of it be voted on by the British Grand Committee and then part of it be voted on by each of the four national Grand Committees who may suggest amendments that contradict each other?  That type of bill would take years to steer through all five Grand Committees, if ever so all that will happen is that the British Grand Committee would exercise its prerogative to vote on "devolved" issues and ride roughshod over themselves with their English/Scottish/Welsh/Northern Irish hats on.  And presumably complain to themselves about it to themselves over their boiled eggs.
• Will the Chair of the British Grand Committee be banned from being Chair of one of the national Grand Committees?
• Will the whip apply to both the British and national Grand Committees?  Will the whips be the same people or will the parties have whips that are whips one week of the month and not the next three?
• The value of devolution is that it allows priorities and needs to be met when they are different to those of the other home nations.  Parties will impose the same policies across the UK on "devolved" matters because that's what they believe in nationally.
• Grand Committees will only exist for as long as the British Parliament decides to tolerate their existence. They will have no constitutional basis, no executive powers, no dedicated politicians, no real legal basis.
• Without a clearly defined (in law) list of what is and isn't devolved to another executive, MPs elected in one country will be able to claim an interest in a bill appearing to affect only one of the other county's if it involves spending money on the basis that money spent in one home nation means less to be spent in another.  An MP elected in Scotland made this claim the same day the Tories originally announced their (now abandoned) English Votes on English Laws policy.

If this policy paper makes it into the manifesto (and I would hope and expect it to do so) then it's not going to be a magic pill that suddenly gets UKIP into government but it's another string to our bow and another reason for people to vote for us.  Almost every supporter of devolution that I know is a eurosceptic but until this policy paper was announced, most of them wouldn't vote for UKIP because of our anti-devolution policy.

We won't get elected based on one core populist policy of leaving the EU - we have to offer more in exchange for peoples' votes.  The Hansard Society Audit of Public Engagement a couple of years ago showed that "Scottish MPs" voting on English matters was the biggest complaint voters had.  The EU came surprisingly low down the list of complaints (most likely because they don't understand how many of the things that annoy them are because of EU directives).  We have a flat tax policy with increased personal allowances - a great policy but how many people understand it or are turned on by it?  Not many.  We have a policy of Swiss-style Referenda which is another great policy but only two petitions on the British government's ePetitions site have achieved 100,000 signatures which suggests people either aren't motivated enough or don't think it will make a difference.

Devolution is different though - the Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish already know how it works and the English are increasingly aware of it as well.  It's expressed as dissatisfaction with the way "Scottish MPs" vote on English laws and the amount of money "they" get compared to us but it's an awareness nonetheless.  An English Parliament is something that people rarely ask for until you ask them if they want it and then they get passionate about it and passion = votes.

The genie is out of the bottle where devolution is concerned and it's not going back in.  Devolution is here to stay so it has to be made to work.  Since devolution was introduced in Scotland and Wales support for independence in those countries has decreased but over the same 13 year period it has increased from basically zero to 36% in England.  What does that tell you?  It shows that devolution delivered (as unexpected as it may have been) on its promise to kill separatism in Scotland and Wales.  It has also, as predicted, resulted in a backlash against the union and in particular the Scots, in England.

The union will break up within my lifetime, it's a matter of timing now.  I'm not anti-union, I'm agnostic towards it - I won't shed a tear when the union breaks up but then I probably won't throw a party either.  It would be fair to say most people in UKIP are unionist and I think that on balance most of the population of the UK is too and that's why UKIP should support devolution.  If we carry on as we are the union will have broken up in less than a decade.  If power is devolved equally and meaningfully to national parliaments then it will last a lot longer.  Big Britishers and Little Englanders alike should support UKIP and this policy.

Finally, I would like to say well done to UKIP's Paul Nuttall, Annabelle Fuller and Gawain Towler for dragging UKIP's stance on devolution kicking and screaming into this millennium and to Eddie Bone and Scilla Cullen from the Campaign for an English Parliament for making sure the new policy doesn't end up a constitutional abomination.

Oldham East & Saddleworth

The Christmas and New Year break is over and we're straight into a curiously timed by election in Oldham East & Saddleworth.

This by election was called after the Labour MP and former minister, Phil Woolas, was found guilty of illegal election campaigning by telling lies about his Lib Dem opponent.

Amusingly, the Lib Dems are expected to do even worse after their betrayal of the poor saps who voted for them on the basis of their opposition to tuition fees the English university tax.  Getting Phil Woolas convicted of breaking electoral law is the only success they're likely to get in Oldham.

The downside is that the Labour candidate is odds-on to win the by election.  It seems that people in Oldham have short memories if they can forget that it was a lying, cheating Labour candidate they were conned into voting for and a lying, cheating Labour Party that has spent the last decade destroying the country.

UKIP's candidate for the election is Paul Nuttall MEP, a local and an excellent future MP.  Only one party can deal with the out-of-control immigration, high tax, illiberal society that the LibLabCon have created.  UKIP policies include a cap on economic immigration, a flat tax that will take low paid workers out of the tax system entirely, rolling back the database state, abolishing quangos and of course leaving the EU.

Cui Bono, Mr Pachauri?

Emperor Barroso has urged the boss of the Tata Foundation, Rajendra Pachauri, to sue UKIP MEP Paul Nuttall for pointing out that Tata stands to make £600m from trading "carbon credits" under the Carbon Trading Scam Scheme invented by ... erm ... Rajendra Pachauri.

Nuttall's speech is as follows::

Mr. Barroso,

Recently we have heard that there is to be a closure of the Corus Steel Works in Teeside, in North East England. This is due to the EU target of a reduction of 20% of Carbon emissions. Thanks to "Carbon Credits", Corus can no longer afford to employ over 5,000 Steel workers including suppliers.  We also have the spectacle of the British government admitting that its hands are tied on this issue by punitive EU Competition Law.

The real gain to Corus from stopping production on Teeside is the saving it will make on its carbon allowances, allocated by the EU under its Emissions Trading Scheme which will be worth up to £600 million over the next three years. As the head of the IPCC, Rajendra Pachauri, is the head of the Tata foundation, one must ask "qui bono?" Needless to say, Tata of India owns Corus.

Is it now official EU policy to offer incentives to companies to close plants, such as Teeside, so that they can out-source their business to countries such as India, or is there a more personal interest at stake here?

Cui Bono, indeed.  Pachauri is clearly a blagger, he managed to get himself appointed to the management team of the IPPC and oversaw the creation of the "carbon credits" pyramid scheme yet he has no relevant qualifications.  A PhD in industrial engineering and economics doesn't qualify someone for this sort of thing.  So how exactly did Pachauri manage to blag his way into this job?

Viaticus Sermo.

UKIP 'would consider an alliance with TUV'

The chairman of the UK Independence Party has said the party will consider an alliance with Jim Allister's TUV in future elections. Paul Nuttall, UKIP MEP for the North West of England, was speaking to the News Letter yesterday after a low-key exploratory visit to the Province.

UKIP has only one politician in Northern Ireland at present — Kilkeel councillor Henry Reilly, who defected from the UUP. Mr Nuttall described TUV leader Jim Allister as “a good guy” who worked closely with UKIP in Europe when an MEP.

“The reason we didn’t stand here in the last European election was to give Jim a free run,” he said, adding that UKIP “will explore” the possibility of an alliance with him in the future. They haven’t selected anyone to stand in next year’s General Election here, with this visit being to “put out feelers”. But UKIP is now beginning to take Northern Ireland “very seriously”. Mr Allister told the News Letter that his party would not be “slamming any doors” on the suggestion.

“Obviously I knew quite a lot of UKIP MEPs in Europe and had good working relationships with them on the big issues,” he said.

“I have a track record of working with them at a tactical level. We haven’t had discussions with them of that nature (about an alliance) but undoubtedly, on European issues, there is a fair degree of consensus between our parties.”

On Wednesday, Mr Nuttall met with students at Queen’s University and he said that the response was so positive that the party planned to set up a group there.

“We think there is a huge gap for a non-sectarian, pro-British party in Northern Ireland that believes in independence from the European Union,” he said, adding that the DUP have not voted on an EU referendum and are “not performing” in government while slating the Tories for backing out of promises for a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.

Although against “excessive immigration”, Mr Nuttall rails against the BNP for its “racist” stance on the matter, pointing out that prominent members of his party are black and Asian. He also dismissed the millions of pounds in EU Peace money which has come to Northern Ireland: “It was all our money in the first place. It costs us £45m a day to be a member of the EU and we get just under half of that back again.”

UKIP is about to launch a massive recruitment campaign in Northern Ireland with the delivery of 100,000 leaflets. Dr Fred McGlade regional organiser for the North West will over see the distribution

UKIP WEST MIDLANDS CELEBRATION DINNER

Enjoying the event, from left to right: Nikki Sinclaire MEP, UKIP leader Nigel Farage MEP, Jill Seymour & Mike Natrass MEP.

On February 20th this year UKIP in the West Midlands held a dinner at the Tally Ho Conference Centre in Edgbaston, Birmingham, for a fund raising event. It was so successful and extremely well attended that the West Midlands UKIP Committee has decided to hold another one on Friday 25th September, 2009.

This is following the enormous victory in the European elections and by way of a celebration for our success of getting two UKIP MEP’s elected and to thank our UKIP activists for all the hard work they have put in and for all that they helped to achieve.

This time the UKIP Party Chairman, Paul Nuttall, will be joining those present. The Tickets will be £25 each and numbered. So, to ensure you won't be disappointed due to what will be a high demand for tickets, we recommend you book as soon as possible.

Please make cheques payable to: “UKIP West Midlands” and send to: UKIP, c/o Holly Cottage, 30 The Fields, Kynnersley, Telford, Shropshire, TF6 6ED.

PLEASE ENSURE YOU PROVIDE YOUR ADDRESS FOR TICKET TO BE FORWARDED - ALSO IF YOU WISH TO OPT FOR THE VEGETARIAN MEAL.

If you need to know anymore contact Derek Bennett: ukip-derek@hotmail.co.uk or telephone: 07813 153897.

DON’T FORGET, THE DINNER DATE IS FRIDAY 25th SEPTEMBER 2009, IT WILL BE AN EVENT NOT TO BE MISSED.