UKIP Defector Calls Party ‘Vanity Project’ for Dictatorial Leader

UK Independence Party (UKIP) member Amjad Bashir said that he decided to leave UKIP because it had become a vanity project for Nigel Farage, party leader.

MOSCOW, January 25 (Sputnik) — UK Independence Party (UKIP) member Amjad Bashir, who defected to join the Conservatives, said UKIP was a vanity project for the dictatorial party leader Nigel Farage, in a letter on Sunday.

“I have decided to leave Ukip because it has become a vanity project for Nigel Farage … He runs the party like a dictator, employs people who are totally inappropriate for party positions and gets rid of anybody who stands in his way,” Bashir said in the letter published in the Daily Mail.

Bashir added that he was racially abused by UKIP members on social media.

Bashir joined UKIP for its support of the United Kingdom's independence from the EU. However, Bashir said that he trusted the Conservative party led by Prime Minister David Cameron will deliver on an EU referendum.

“But now I have no doubt that Mr Cameron will deliver on this, so, in my view, Ukip has outlived its usefulness,” Bashir said.

Cameron pledged to hold a referendum by 2017 on whether the United Kingdom should stay in the EU, if his party wins the upcoming general elections in May.

Meanwhile, UKIP posted a statement on Saturday claiming Bashir was suspended from the party pending investigations on "unanswered financial and employment questions."

Bashir is a Pakistani-born businessman and served as an UKIP Member of the European Parliament for less than a year.