Suchorzewski and UKIP: a reply

My mole in UKIP, Wellington (who, believe me, does know about this stuff) has emailed a reply to Richard Sucharzewski's resignation letter; I shall be drawing Iain's attention to it and hope that this, too, requires no further commentary from him.

Dear Chairman,

Please be so good as to accept, and post on UKIP.org, this my letter of resignation from The UK Independence Party.

When does a resignation letter get billing on a party website? What planet is he on to expect that?

It was a privilege to be elected Chairman of UKIP Wales and work to represent the members in restructuring and introducing an organisational structure for growth. I would like to thank, for their invaluable assistance, John Bufton as Regional Organiser and my hard working and supportive committee and members in Wales. I am pleased to have been able to help turn UKIP Wales around and put in place foundations for growth and success in the National Assembly Elections next May.

Which is interesting because rumors come to [the UKIP team] that the fighting fund in Wales has not changed in size since he took over. Nobody is sure if there are any candidates in place for the Welsh Assembly elections, and despite being the only party that opposes the Welsh Assembly only 16 people turned up to protest against it at the building's official opening earlier this year. Bufton is the fellow who has been left to pick up the pieces and has been excellent in trying circumstances.

I was honoured to be elected by the membership to represent them on the NEC, where they believed I had specialist skills and experience to best represent their interests, to the benefit of UKIP and its primary cause. When I stood for the leadership election I did so, on a ticket of Transparency, Integrity and Equality. These standards reflect my inner beliefs, as well as the moral, ethical and Christian principles upon which I have based my whole life. I knew there were significant problems with the Party, and also believed that the moral integrity of a number of people at the top left much to be desired. It was my belief that should I be elected leader these problems could be resolved and the Party then could move forward together, on a firmer footing in probity and strength.

His inner beliefs of course mean that when he failed to get selected as a Tory candidate in Wales he joined UKIP. For the 2005 election, yup, just last year or maybe late the year before.

Nothing however prepared me for the scurrilous behaviour, defamatory comments and downright dishonesty of some of Nigel Farage's & David Bannerman's staff, supporters and members of the Press Office staff, in which they clearly colluded. I was accused of having associations with the BNP – even when these scoundrels knew that my grandfather was murdered by the Nazis in a concentration camp and my Great Grandfather was discovered hanged by them from a lamp post near his home by my 14 year old Father.

Nobody has ever heard about all this family history. It may be true for all we know, but it is not something he has ever gone on about before.

Further I am angry that UKIP's leadership were happy to collude in this base and obscene slur, particularly in the light of the fact that I have been 'courting' a young woman from St Lucia for the last 2 years, she herself has been victimised by racial abuse.

Eh? Collusion, er... nope not seen any of that, indeed not seen the original allegations, though there have been allegations about allegations. Collusion, hmm when allegations are made, and nobody responds to them is that collusion? Nah. Again completely unaware of his courting a lady from St Lucia, good luck to him. And to be frank he will need it if he uses such archaic language. Is the courtship consummated, if not why not? If so why not say partner? Oh the questions, the questions. Sad that she has been the subject of racial abuse, but note that there is no suggestion that this has come from anyone within the party. Why say that? Because if it had, given the tone of this letter he would have said so.

I was accused of being a homosexual, despite no evidence of this, and my having been happily married for 14 years, a marriage which sadly ended in an amicable divorce and now subsequently I am courting the above mentioned lady.

The only allegation about homosexuality during the campaign that did the rounds was directed by somebody in his camp against one of the other candidates, not Farage of course, one might say that he is in the clear on that one. Happily married for 14 years, but now divorced, then one can surmise that at least somebody wasn't happily married for some of that time.

I was accused of having 'run up' a company debt of £4millions in one of my businesses when these accusers knew that I had purchased the company with secured debts, that it had already accrued, amounting to £4millions of losses. My business is in the field of mergers and acquisitions, specialising in the purchase, development and sale of problematic companies.

The critic in question was Chad Noble [who runs UKIP Home, a wholely unendorsed site], who looked at the Companies House Record. Its all there on his blog. Nobody could claim that Chad is controlled by anybody, he is loose cannon. There again this was all part of a spat between the two of them, there was an article in some Welsh newspaper that kicked all this off.

My critics in this area are either commercial illiterates or unarguably dishonest either of which reflects ill on the competence of the new leadership. My local newspaper was contacted by an UKIP official and advised to look into some of these accusations – in order to attempt to taint my unblemished reputation. Even friends within my own local Conservative Party have informed me that they were asked for 'any dirt' they had on me including my political, personal and business affairs. This list shamefully goes on.

Chad Noble, UKIP Official, Oh don't make me laugh. Given somebody is challenging for party leader it does seem sensible to conduct some due diligence. After all his campaign website had mugshots of the fellow with people like Jonathan Evans MEP, arch federast, etc. So some calls were made to friends in the Tory party. Whether somebody said, get "any dirt" not sure, but good lord this is politics not the local WI (and plenty of WIs I know are far more brutal). I cannot answer the point about commercial enterprises as I an economically illiterate.

Despite all of this I was willing to forgive and forget. I called for Party unity behind the new leader Nigel Farage, regardless of how he had gained his new position. I hoped this would in some way result in a change of attitude.

Yup he did.

Clearly it did NOT. Farage colluded with, and thus endorsed the scurrilous behaviour. He was not prepared for his staff to apologise for the BNP allegations as he felt that the issue 'would go away' – and he tried to justify the concern on the basis that a fellow NEC member David Abbott volunteered his support of my leadership candidacy. (David Abbott is the very man whom Farage and his secretary Douglas Denny introduced and actively supported to the NEC and only turned against when he supported my candidacy.) Farage also claimed concern in that a Mr Andrew Edwards supported my leadership bid on an internet blog that he runs.

I am to be tainted by this, even though I have never posted on his site, spoken to, nor communicated with the said person, who I am advised is NOT a member of UKIP.

David Abbot is believed to have put money in the way of the American supporter wing of the BNP. Murky deals , provbenance unknown. Andrew Edwards is a former UKIP member that Nick Griffin admitted on TV was a BNP mole, he was thus chucked out of UKIP. However to demand that Farage discipline Chad, whilst claiming that he cannot be responsible for Edwards is rank hypocrisy.

Farage has also claimed that a long term associate of his, Greg Lance-Watkins is a supporter and associate of the BNP, of which I have seen no evidence – yet this seems to besmirch my reputation, as G.L-W . openly supported my candidacy, having stated, based on extensive personal dealings with Nigel Farage that "he was a good performer for UKIP but lacked either the probity or competence to lead UKIP." This logic that UKIP's new leader has adopted if seriously applied, must call into question his own credentials, bearing in mind both his long term association with G.L-W. and that the BNP actually refused to stand against Farage, and supported, his candidacy at the Bromley by-election. Does this make Nigel a BNP supporter?

GLW is a poisonous fellow, who on first meeting is plausible. It is thought that Farage used to be in communication with him irregularly, but has not been for years, particularly when he called for celebration of the murder of Anna Lindh, the former Swedish Foreign Minister. However this resignation letter was sent out by GLW and Andrew Edwards, at least that is how most got to see it. For GLW to talk about probity is akin to listening to Gordon Brown about prudence. You might listen once but all the evidence suggests you are a fool.

Rather than be magnanimous in victory and help the Party unite, Nigel and his clique overturned a perfectly legitimate democratic vote at the NEC which had elected Geoffrey Kingscott (a most honourable man) as Party Secretary, denying the Party of another person with integrity at the top, and placing his supporter the discredited Douglas Denny in the post.

A witch hunt has now commenced, seemingly with the aim to disingenuously massage MEP lists, with the disciplinary hearing of Peter Baker for daring to make public his committee's majority voted opposition to Roger Knapman's morally questionable exploitation and involvement in a Polish Workers import business run by his son. Similarly Dennis Brookes a loyal and devoted supporter and Regional Organiser of UKIP would seem to have been victimised, for having the temerity not to object to his committee's support of my candidacy, and this apparently has contributed to losing him his job.

Kingscott resigned well before the election, so this is shuffling with dates. He was there at the conference and seemed perfectly happy. Doug Denny is in fact not party secretary in the new team, Michael Zuckerman is. Zuckerman is the partner in a West End law firm and will be the first qualified lawyer in what is essentially a legal job. Though the details are opaque iut would be reasonable to believe there is more to the disciplining of Mr Brooks than is presented here.

I have no doubt from Nigel's discussion with me, subsequent to the election, that others too will suffer similar fates.

Farage told Richard his plans? Likely story.

On policy issues, Nigel has made statements already, that make it clear to me, we are to become a shadow alternative Tory Party. A pressure group created to persuade the Tories to dump Cameron and change its policy on the EU. I am sorry; I did not leave the real Tory party to join a poor imitation. I believed UKIP was sincere in its endeavour to extricate Britain from the European Union, returning sovereignty to a British Parliament and playing a full independent part in that new Parliament.

Er, selection in schools is not a Labour/Tory issue, it is an issue that has enormous support across the entire political spectrum. Flat tax? The last think tank to come out in favour of this was the Joseph Rowntree Trust, that famously right wing organisation. Utter bollocks Richard.

On financial and transparency issues, I believe a cloud still overhangs the Ashford call centre and various aspects of UKIP accounts. Also the financial dealings and involvement in fraud, (as exposed by the media), of Tom Wise, one of UKIP's MEP's, have not adequately been resolved. Likewise there has been a lack of transparency of others. I have contended that funding mechanisms are too heavily reliant on the EU, as this makes us subservient to the very body from which we wish to disassociate and which we openly accuse of corruption particularly in the area of accounting!.

Interestingly the expose came through Daniel Foggo of the Sunday Times, somebody who first noticed UKIP over the GLW/Lindh affair and has been a regular correspondent with the aforementioned chap ever since. Finance only comes with success, the money coming out of the European Parliament is ironic, but at least it is there.

I stood for leader knowing full well that it was a challenge I was unlikely to win. Farage had control of a number of advantages that if abused would guarantee him success. Knowing this, I was more than surprised that he allowed his cronies, supporters and certain staff to openly and reprehensibly lie and rubbish a loyal UKIP member, with elected duties, who devoted the last 2 years of his life, full time, unpaid, to help UKIP progress.

When the press office phoned Richard during the campaign, he failed to return calls, they were happy to help put out press releases for him but to no avail. Again these unsubstantiated allegations. It is thought that he asked for the press office to be fired to stop him resigning. Given that UKIPs press has increased about 50 fold under the current regime that is quite an ask.

Even now in 'victory', Farage appears determined not to change his ways, and because of this I cannot support this Party under his leadership any longer. Reluctantly I am left with no honourable action open to me other than leave, as I am not prepared to give my good name, reputation and integrity in support of Farage and many in his clique.

So in less than a month he has gone from wholehearted support to resignation. Stalwart chap. Nothing new has happened since the leadership election, other than hard work to move the party forward. Why would anybody continue to attack a defeated candidate, it just doesn't seem logical?

I therefore stand alongside other Party devotees and former NEC members, Anthony Butcher, Gill Chant and others (not to mention the many activists who have already resigned). My heart and my grateful thanks go out to all of those who supported me and the values in which we believed, and those who have committed so much of their lives in their patriotic pursuit of regaining democracy, British Independence and Sovereignty.

So some trouble makers have left. Well it is always sad to see people go, but there again the party as a whole was pretty glad to see the back of Killroy Silk when it became apparent that the party was to be a voice of RKS and that is it. So maybe this pruning is necessary for the health of the party.

It does not give me any satisfaction to realise that the old saying "Fish Rots from the Head Down" may have more than a cursory resemblance to UKIP. Please be so good as to convey to the membership my very best wishes and thanks for allowing me to serve them! At the moment I feel honour bound to continue the struggle for liberation from the EU and better Governance outside of UKIP, but would be happy to reconsider my position should there be notable changes within UKIP in the future under very different leadership.

Yadda yadda yadda, what a decent cove.

Yours Sincerely, Richard Suchorzewski
UKIP Wales Chairman (resigned 5th Oct 2006) NEC Member (resigned 5th Oct 2006).

Joined late 2004, after he saw 12 MEPs elected.

I would like to emphasise that Wellington is in a position to know all of this, is not part of the party leadership, and is, from my experience, both an able and trustworthy chap.

As I have said before, even if you believe that UKIP are not serious, then I intend to make them so. Come, o libertarians unite, and let us support a group that believes what we do. Supporting the Tories right now is merely allowing another NuLabour government in by the back door.

Unio Europaea delenda est.