As the live blog has become too long and unwieldy, we continue with the most important event of today: the vote count and the result. I repeat from the Live Blog, and then go on:
THUS ENDS THE EGM – EVERYBODY IS NOW ON THEIR WAY BACK HOME
16.40: Oakden starts with giving thanks to the staff at Lexdrum House – very well received indeed! Then he thanks us grassroots … good applause. Mention is made about the Collins cause – we won’t let Labour bully us off the pitch …
RESULTS:
1604 slips issues = 1378 received back – 11 spoilt
Bolton to go: 867 – 63%
Bolton to stay: 500 – 37%
Therefore Bolton has been rejected as as leader.
‘Keep the faith with the party’
The NEC will make a quick decision regarding the Interim Leader.
~~ 00 ~~
‘Take your seats – we’ll make the announcement shortly” – [This may be brief because the Welsh contingent will have to leave to catch their coach back!]
~~ 00 ~~
It is extremely difficult to predict the outcome. It is even difficult to discern when the announcement will be made. So bear with me.
There’s a general murmuring in the hall, people are wandering up and down. I’ve not been able to meet our Associate Editor, Debbie – but have met “Donald Duck” ..
~~ 00 ~~
16.12: While the count is going on, some camera people were allowed in to film the count. There were also photographers. They had been excluded during the speeches, but obviously, the announcement of the ballot is of importance even to the MSM, so they are now infesting the front of the hall and the aisles.
Many members have already or are going home – after having cast their ballot. The Welsh coach leaves at 5 pm – let’s hope we have the result before that.
~~ 00 ~~
As I mentioned at the beginning (see below): all members had to register before they were allowed in. Upon registering they ere issued with an orange card which they had to present on entry into the hall. Those cards were exchanged for the ballot paper. The ballot had two boxes: support the NEC decision – no support for the NEC Decision.
Right now the orange cards are counted and checked against the ballot paper numbs. The numbers must be the same.
Gerard Batten’s speech was perfectly pitched.
Good, hard hitting speeches from both sides, with a bit of light entertainment towards the end. I would not have missed this EGM event for anything. Definitely worth the journey.
Slight error in the results given at the top of the page, I think. When Paul Oakden gave out the results I wrote down 1404 voting forms issued, not 1604. It is more plausible that only 26 people did not return their voting slips, than 226.
The number of voting slips was 1406, according to my notes.
At last a good day for UKIP.
The Party must now rally behind Gerard Batten and his mini manifesto. I think that the majority of UKIP members will agree with and support the issues that Mr Batten raised and how he would deal with them in his recent article.
Mr Batten’s manifesto should be the basis of how UKIP now go forward towards the May elections.
Future leadership elections and the back room stuff that Henry Bolton was supposedly working on can now wait until after May.
UKIP now has a real opportunity to move forward again and recover lost ground with Gerard Batten leading the way.
Let’s hope we also see the return of some talented people who have left the Party and also others joining the cause, such as the Veterans association.
All the MEPs and other members who said they would leave if Anne Marie Waters won due to her ‘racist’ (NF) ‘neo-Nazi’ (HB) views on Islam will presumably be resigning now, since Gerard Batten’s views on what to do about Islam are more radical than anything AMW has said:
“9. Islam: To face up to the threat posed to our way of life by literalist and radical Islam. This means a policy of no more mass immigration from Islamic countries and policies to neutralise the influence of Islam; e.g. no more overseas funding of mosques and imams from extremist regimes such as Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.”
http://gerardbattenmep.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/UKIP-The-way-Forward.pdf
I don’t think they will actually. Whether a policy is extreme or not apparently depends on who’s saying it.
It matters not so much “who” says it but “how” it is said.
At a Hustings I heard some Leader candidates criticise radical Islam – and many members agreed with those criticisms.
AMW repeated those themes – but somehow managed to sound almost as fanatical and intolerant as the extreme Islamists we are all worried about.
Jules,
Then you are part of the problem, I am sorry to say – don’t mean to be rude.
Do you honestly imagine ‘tolerating’ a religious/political system that most agree is quite frankly disgustingly medieval? Yeah, yeah, yeah, the average ‘man in the street’ in Bradford or Brum isn’t going to stab you if you look at his wife, but the radicals who ARE doing that aren’t considered particularly immoral by the standards of islamic teaching. Now, how are you going to get that across in non-fanatical terms? I suggest it’s next to impossible.
So, we just let them win, right??
“1604 slips issued; 1378 received back.”
Could someone who was there please hazard a guess as to what happened to the 226 slips that were issued but not handed back?
226 people went to the trouble of travelling to an EGM whose only function was to vote on Henry Bolton, but then didn’t cast their vote. That’s 14% of the attendees.
The reason, IMHO, was that those were probably members who had to leave early. Don’t forget that the whole thing started with a delay of well over 30 minutes, and people needed to catch their trains and coaches. Others might well have abstained – nothing unusual in that, is there?
My note say that there were 1406 attendees (not 1604) and an abstention rate, including spoiled ballots, of 2.8%.
Congratulations to UKIP. Gerard Batten is a good and decent man, and knowledgeable too.
My feeling is that UKIP can have a resurgence – by addressing the serious threats that our country faces from Islam. If UKIP does develop the courage to do so, and with the hand of Gerard at the helm it may well do, then the party has an important part to play in restoring decency and order to our country.
The de facto expulsion of Anne Marie Waters from UKIP by Bolton and Farage was shameful. Hopefully there will be co-operation between true patriots, in whatever party they have ended up in, for the good of our country, and to ensure the vitally important principle: “one law for all, and with everyone subject to the same law”. With our laws made by our own accountable elected representatives. Not laws made in Brussels, or 7th century Mecca either.
Good riddance but what about the 500? Will they continue to cause trouble as Bolton’s stooges?
Proud to be in the class of 867.
I stayed to the bitter end, Oh sorry marvellous end.
As I put some cash into the bucket the lady was holding out at the exit; I thanked her for a very nice day, what better to have an assassination and a crowning.
Yes the crowning was our new interim Leader GERARD BATTEN, cannot remember what he said but it was sufficiently stirring short and sweet, because it was close to 5pm chucking out time.
Steve Crowther has left the NEC and Oakden has done his final shift as interim chairman.
I hope Batten “hits the ground running” and gets some momentum going – we have been moribund too long.
Scowl away Nigel, we’re free of you now.
Apart from getting rid of Henry – the other good thing that may come out of this EGM is that this may finally bring to an end Nigel’s divisive and mischievous games he has been playing on the sidelines.
Time for UKIP to shape itself and progress without Nigel.
Absolutely.
What a result to come home to! I had to get myself out of the house, otherwise I too would have been obsesively poring over this site looking for updates.
As it happens I did decide to travel into the city centre, and I was pleased to see that there was no Antifa/Hope Not Hate presence outside the ICC.
That was probably more due to the fact that much of the Centenary Square and Paradise Circus areas are a building site at present, so I can only apologise for any disappointment felt by visitors who haven’t been to Birmingham in a while!
I don’t think this is over by a long shot, you may have got rid of Bolton, but Farage is probably already scowling away in a corner somewhere plotting his next move.
No no no, Henry Who and Nigel got rid of all the racist nazis, last September, remember.
Don’t worry about Antifa or Hate Not Hope, there is another party whose job is to take the flack from those groups, it’s called For Britain – Anne Marie’s new party. Now that UKIP is just another plain vanilla movement of no particular threat to the establishment in this country, you’ve nothing to worry about have you.
Ann Marie’s party still isn’t registered is it?
No it isn’t registered. The PTB are trawling through the regulations trying to find some reason to nip the party in the bud.
Now, why would they want to do that, and what will it do to the public resentment pressure cooker, one wonders?
The ICC area being a building site didn’t stop Antifa / HNH turning up, Stuart. They didn’t turn up because UKIP is no longer a threat to the establishment.
Keith,
I would not be so sure of that myself, you have not heard Gerard speak yet. They won’t like it one little bit, be prepared.
Well done UKIP – well done indeed!
although we might have picked up a few ex Kippers in For Britain had Bolton won, it would have been detrimental to our country because UKIP wouldn’t have survived, and we need every patriot we can get. Or our country does.
What we REALLY need is everyone now to sensibly work together, everyone who cares about the way our country is being given away – to the EU dictators and to Islamic Cultural practices andmthe enablers of it – now perhaps we have a real chance of doing so. There is very little time.
UKIP can’t hope to form a Government, any more than For Britain can (even if it has to stand Independents) or, say, the Veterans Party – but we COULD perhaps all get a few MP’s each, and that could make a difference, a real difference.
So please, along with the binning of Bolton, can we bin the rest of the hate?
It will be much easier to do now Nigel has effectively lost control of UKIP.
Onward and upward for the future depends on us ALL.
Dee the comment immediately above yours was aimed at Liberas – problems with the new server!
Dee – bin the hate? I couldn’t agree more. It’s not good that so many disparate new parties have started up on the pro-democracy, pro- Brexit side (Peoples Front of Judea, Judean People’s Front etc) so working together is vital. Really hope Gerard Batten & Cliff Dixon’s work with Veterans Against Terrorism bears fruit too now we’ve peeled Clingon off us.
63% go : 37% stay
Is that 37% who like Henry or 37% who hate the NEC?
LOL.
The same thing, methinks.
LL,
One thing is for sure they may like him but he certainly does not respect the membership as a whole. What happened to him in the army and the police force to make him like he is I wonder?
Hi Vivian
Thank you for all your hard work today keeping us informed of proceedings.
Saw Paul Oakden giving the result live on BBC News Channel.
BYE BYE BOLTON AND JOLLY GOOD RIDDANCE.
Viv, I saw a photo of the “UKIP Wales Express” on the party’s twitter feed. I got quite emotional. Have a safe journey back to Wales.
And a safe journey to everyone else who took part in saving UKIP.
Right, I’m going to have a look at Marney’s twitter now so I can gloat over it. Not to worry, Jo dear, he’s all yours now. Tra, la, la.
Kind regards.
The Establishment is already ridiculing UKIP for this: umpteenth leader in x-number of years – but it is to be expected. Yet another attempt to kill UKIP has been averted, and the mocking will match the levels of frustration.