UKIP decline continues – yet they want your vote in RCT

UKIP's fortunes continue to go from bad to worse as they hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons. In August of last year, just three months after being elected, one of their Assembly Members left their group in the Senedd to sit independently. Nathan Gill, AM for North Wales, is also a Member of the European Parliament – the one UKIP were so against.

Just a couple of weeks ago their only MP announced he was quitting the party. He used to be a Conservative and resigned as an MP when he turned to UKIP, standing again in a by election to retake his seat. He has now decided he is fed up of UKIP and will remain as an Independent.

Now this week another, another former Conservative, Mark Reckless, has announced he is quitting UKIP but joining the Tory group at the Assembly. He was a Conservative MP for Rochester and Strood before resigning and joining UKIP, but was, like most of their AMs, parachuted into Wales for last year's elections. He is now joining the Conservative group, but not the party.

Confused yet? Because it seems UKIP are.

Commenting on the resignation of Mark Reckless AM from the UKIP Assembly group, former Wales Office Minister Baroness Randerson said;

"UKIP have jumped from disaster to disaster, presumably to keep themselves busy now they've finally managed to 'take back control'.

"They say good things come in threes. First they lost an AM, then they lost their only MP, and now they're set to lose a third AM. They're an embarrassment to the Welsh Assembly and are letting down those who elected them to the Assembly last May."

One of a small number of UKIP candidates for the RCT Council elections is standing in Cwmclydach, where RCT's Welsh Liberal Democrat Chair Karen Roberts is also a candidate. She says

"They are a complete shambles. They have only ever had one purpose – to see the UK leave the EU, whilst at the same time their MEPs ride the gravy train there.

"Now they have seen that ambition fulfilled they have nothing to keep them going. They have no regard for the people of RCT or Wales as can be seen from their actions. Their AMs were brought in from England to stand here and have no understanding of what is going on.

"The UKIP candidate in Cwmclydach has played no part in the community there at all, and stood as a candidate for Pontypridd constituency at last May's Assembly elections. What makes him think he has a right to ask for residents' trust?"