A POLITICAL party has been accused of “ripping apart” its local branch after suspending the committee.

The UK Independence Party – UKIP – has this week come under fire after it took the hustings for its general election candidate away from Brecon and Radnorshire members and suspended them claiming they had “brought the party into disrepute”.

Hitting back at being suspended, members of the former UKIP committee threatened to set up their own general election party named Real UKIP.

The whole argument started when the Brecon & Radnor branch selected a prospective parliamentary candidate in the summer of 2014. Only one candidate stood and was elected.

UKIP later stated that procedure had not been followed and declared the selection invalid.

But the political party then decided to withdraw the local branch election and instead the Wales committee heard the case of the two prospective candidates before electing Darran Thomas.

Paul Burgess, who claims to be a member of the suspended B&R UKIP, said that members of UKIP took the vote away from the local committee after an argument which they wanted to question the prospective candidate on.

He said: “As regards to the hustings, it was explained to me very clearly that a candidate’s behaviour cannot be questioned at the hustings.

“We have been totally ignored at every turn. Trying and trying again, we have just met a stone wall of silence.”

In response a UKIP spokesman blamed the actions of B&R UKIP members for the hustings being held by the Wales committee.

He said: “It was UKIP’s intention that the selection would take place at the local branch level and that all branch members would be able to participate in the selection.

“However, during the period between members receiving notification of the selection meeting and the meeting being scheduled to take place it transpired that members who appeared to be supportive of the candidate who was initially nominated were attempting to gerrymander the process to ensure their favoured candidate was selected.

“These issues were brought to the attention of the party which acted swiftly to investigate these allegations. 

“During this investigation evidence was presented which appeared to indicate that some members had sought to unduly influence the selection process.

“It was therefore deemed appropriate to cancel the branch selection process and ask the Wales committee to hear from both candidates and vote to select the PPC for Brecon & Radnor.

“It later came to our attention that the committee had earlier circulated the branch membership list openly at a previous branch meeting in an apparent breach of data protection rules and that members of the committee were engaged in subversive actions to bring the party into disrepute.

“It is for these reasons that UKIP took the regrettable decision to suspend the committee subject to investigation.

“We had hoped that the investigation would reveal that there were no questions to answer and that the committee could be reinstated in full. 

“However, the recent actions of members of the committee which appear to have been designed to cause reputational damage to the party make that a highly unlikely possibility.

“In terms of the very public accusations made by Paul Burgess, we can confirm that he is not and never has been registered with UKIP as a member of the branch committee. 

“It has also now become apparent that certain individuals involved in bringing the party into disrepute have also been involved in initial discussions to establish a new political party with the specific intent of causing further harm to UKIP.”

The suspended ex-UKIP B&R committee are calling a meeting of all members and supporters tonight, Friday, February 20, at 7pm the Castle Hotel, Brecon, where they will discuss their next course of action.