Ukip leader on the brink over mistress’s baby abuse ‘jokes’
THE leader of Britain’s Eurosceptic Ukip party was on the brink of resigning last night after it emerged his mistress had made racist remarks about Meghan Markle and joked about sexual abuse of babies.
Henry Bolton was told to either dump his 25-year-old girlfriend Jo Marney or go.
Ms Marney was suspended from the party after the Mail revealed a series of racist messages in which she branded black people as ‘ugly’ and warned that Ms Markle’s genes would ‘taint’ Britain’s royal family.
Now it’s emerged Ms Marney has plumbed even further depths with horrific messages in which she joked with a friend about raping a baby. The Mail has chosen not to print the distressing exchange.
Ukip – formerly led by Brexit cheerleader Nigel Farage – last night refused to comment on the messages but a friend of Ms Marney’s claimed they had been taken out of context and had been ‘part of an outrage competition’. He said Ms Marney had posted the remarks as she tried to make a comparison between the abuse of animals and babies.
Earlier yesterday Ukip MEP Bill Etheridge had urged Mr Bolton to quit ahead of a planned vote of confidence due to be held by Ukip’s national executive committee this Sunday. He said: ‘Go now. Go quietly and leave us to deal with what’s left.’ In a video posted on Facebook, he added: ‘It appears that we are now seeing Ukip resources, which are at best scant, being used to defend Henry’s private life.’
He said he would step down as Ukip’s shadow sports minister if Mr Bolton – who was elected leader last September as the party’s fifth leader in 16 months – ‘insists on prolonging this agony’.
Yesterday the party was reeling after it emerged that Ms Marney had sent racist messages about black people, including dismissing Ms Markle’s suitability to be Prince Harry’s wife, adding: ‘This is Britain, not Africa.’
Ms Marney apologised for the racist messages yesterday, saying: ‘The opinions I expressed were deliberately exaggerated in order to make a point and have, to an extent, been taken out of context. Yet I fully recognise the offence they have caused.
‘I’m absolutely devastated by the messages that I’ve sent and the distress that I’ve caused anyone by those messages. They were unnecessary, they were reckless, they were overly exaggerated purely for effect. They were never intended to be put in the public domain and I’d like to take this opportunity to offer my sincere and deepest apologies to anyone I’ve hurt and for the distress and embarrassment I’ve caused my family, friends and the party.’
Peter Whittle, leader of Ukip’s delegation in the London Assembly, called for Ms Marney to be ‘expelled altogether’ for the ‘disgraceful remarks’. The racism row comes as Mr Bolton faces an investigation into his private life by senior party officials. Mr Bolton left wife Tatiana, 42, who gave birth to their second daughter in 2016, prior to his relationship with Ms Marney becoming public earlier this month.
The Ukip leader confirmed a ‘change in my relationship status’ in recent weeks, but denied reports it had involved ‘a clandestine affair with a young lady who happens also to be a member of Ukip’.