Ukip MEPs - Defected, Arrested, Suspended, Convicted - The List

Richard Corbett
Scourge of Ukip

Superb piece (again) from Labour MEP Richard Corbett, who's made (as we have) a particular study of the Fraud and Criminality within Ukip. (It's a full time job).

RC is also a required go-to on Brexit Myth-Busting as well, another of his key strengths.

Here's the up-to-date list :

Tom Wise

Stole £36,000 from Parliament and spent it on cars and wine. Jailed by Southwark Crown Court in November 2009. Read more

Ashley Mote

Stole £65,506 in illegally obtained benefits, and nearly £500,000 in fraudulent expenses. Jailed in 2007 and again in 2015. Read more

Robert Kilroy-Silk

Quit UKIP in 2005 after MEPs discussed expelling him. Later set up his own party, but resigned from that too.

Nikki Sinclaire

Expelled by UKIP in 2009 after complaining about extremism in the party’s Parliamentary group. Later arrested for fraud and money-laundering. Read more

Mike Nattrass

Deselected by UKIP and quit in 2013, complaining of totalitarian leadership within the party. Read more

Godfrey Bloom

Eventually suspended and then quit as UKIP MEP in 2013 after a recording emerged of him calling female conference delegates “sluts”. Read more

Marta Andreasen

Defected to the Tories in 2013, citing Nigel Farage’s “anti-women” and “Stalinist” tendencies.

David Campbell Bannerman

Defected to the Tories in 2011, reporting that UKIP was “beset by internal fighting”.

Amjad Bashir

Defected to the Tories in 2015. UKIP claimed it had already suspended him over financial irregularities. Read more

Janice Atkinson

Defected to the far-right parliamentary grouping led by Marine LePen following an expenses fraud investigation. Read more

Steven Woolfe

Flirted with defection to the Tories after failing in a leadership bid. Was allegedly punched by a fellow UKIP MEP, and quit the party shortly after. Read more

Roger Helmer

Resigned from Parliament amid investigation into misuse of some £100,000 of parliamentary funds.

Diane James

Quit in an “act of irrational selfishness”, according to Farage, after her short-lived leadership. Read more

Jonathan Arnott

Resigned because of the party’s “unpleasant nature” and its “sewer of party politics”. Read more

James Carver

Resigned because “experience has helped me appreciate how personal happiness and well-being can only be attained by staying true to one’s beliefs”.