January 30 Letters: Ukip defector Amjad Bashir should stand for election again

i WOULD like to make a few points regarding your comment ‘Rejecting Ukip’ (The Yorkshire Post, January 26). You start off by mentioning the defection of MEP Amjad Bashir because he says Ukip can’t give us a referendum. Yet only eight months ago Mr Bashir was quite happy to stand as a Ukip MEP, knowing full well that such a referendum is Ukip’s goal.

Since that time Ukip has gained two MPs and nearly a third in by-elections, not to mention thousands of new members. So now as Ukip continues to gain strength and ever more support, Mr Bashir has decided to leave (no great loss).

But will he do the honourable thing, like the two MPs who left the useless Tories, Messrs Carswell and Reckless, and resign his seat and then stand in a by-election against Ukip? I think not, as he knows he would have no chance of winning.

You also fail to mention that Mr Bashir had been suspended by Ukip for alleged wrongdoing; he was apparently rejected by Respect for the same reason. This is one more point in Ukip’s favour over the LibLabCons; when someone is found to be guilty of wrongdoing it is dealt with, unlike the other parties who just turn a blind eye.

David Laws claimed £40,000 of taxpayers’ money in an expenses scandal, which in any other job would have led to the sack and possibly prison. He is now back in the Cabinet.

Had he been with Ukip he would not now be an MP, at least not a Ukip MP.

As for your comment that only the Conservatives can give us a referendum, I’m afraid that you are living in cloud cuckoo land. David Cameron has already reneged on one cast iron guarantee of a referendum and he will not be in a position to give us one after the election for a number of reasons.

Firstly he will not win the election, (it is also highly unlikely that Labour will either). Secondly everyone except Mr Cameron knows that he cannot renegotiate our terms of membership, his numerous bosses, Merkel, Juncker, Barrosso and most other eurocrats, plus his British boss Nick Clegg, have repeatedly told him that this is a non-starter.

However Mr Cameron has always insisted that he wants Britain in the EU. In fact until the upsurge of Ukip he was totally ruling out any referendum and the vast majority of us who want one to get us out of the EU were branded as loons.

So, instead of backing one of the failed status quo parties who are all pro-EU, why not back a party that will put Britain first and free our country from foreign dictatorship?