UKIP’s new leader - who lists Nazi Germany as interest - says party is ‘back on track’
UKIP's new leader Freddy Vachha. Photograph: YouTube. - Credit: Archant
UKIP's new leader has claimed Westminster should be 'shaking in their boots' after claiming his party is 'back in business'.
Freddy Vachha, in an animated speech made in front of Sir Winston Churchill's statue in Parliament Square, said Westminster politicians should be 'quaking' after he vowed to revive the anti-European Union party's fortunes.
He is the sixth person to take the UKIP helm since Nigel Farage stood down following the 2016 referendum result.
Gerrard Batten, the former MEP who was the elected UKIP leader for 14 months up until June 2019, was criticised for taking the party in an anti-Islam direction, appointing right-wing activist Tommy Robinson as an adviser.
Under his leadership, the party lost all its MEPs during the European elections in June 2019.
You may also want to watch:
In December, it was revealed that Batten's successor Richard Braine was sued by the party over allegations of data theft.
Vachha, whose beleaguered party pulled in just 22,000 votes during the election in December, admitted UKIP 'went astray quite a few years ago' but said it was now 'back on track'.
Most Read
- 1 The Prime Minister is out of his league
- 2 Empty shelves are partly down to Brexit - but Leavers won't admit it
- 3 Party politics will not save us from the Tories - we need drastic action
- 4 Has something shifted in sado-populist Britain?
- 5 The Spanish village with the mythical blue lagoon
- 6 Rabbits defeat French army
- 7 Would Javid have renamed ICU wards 'Drama Queen Zones'?
- 8 Priti Patel - the poster girl for our poisonous politics
- 9 Boris Johnson: The sado-populist prime minister
- 10 Cost of Brexit is already 38 times more than the money set aside for levelling up
The 61-year-old said: 'We're back in business, we're a proper mainstream political party.
'That shower in Westminster should be quaking in their shoes.'
Speaking on the eve of the fourth anniversary of the Brexit referendum result, Vachha said it was 'ridiculous' that negotiations with Brussels were still going on.
'We are still enmeshed in the EU, still haggling and arguing with them while we should have just left,' he told those outside parliament.
As well as growing 'ultra-hot' chillies and breeding koi carp, the former MP candidate lists 'Nazi Germany' and the 'Belgian Congo holocaust' among his hobbies on a CV posted on his Facebook account.
He also claims to speak 'American' as a language, along with Urdu, Gujarati and French.
Vachha appeared to distance himself from the party direction fostered by Batten.
'For many years we too had gone astray, focusing on things that were not very important and some of the things we focused on were just plum wrong,' he added.
'We return to our libertarian freedom-loving principles. And under my leadership, that is what we will get.'
Become a Supporter
The New European is proud of its journalism and we hope you are proud of it too. We believe our voice is important - both in representing the pro-EU perspective and also to help rebalance the right wing extremes of much of the UK national press. If you value what we are doing, you can help us by making a contribution to the cost of our journalism.
