The English Democrats/Patriotic Alternative/UKIP election alliance has suffered an embarrassing blow in Great Yarmouth where their candidate, Catherine Blaiklock, has issued a statement calling on people not to vote for her.
Blaiklock is a former leader of the Brexit Party, but had to stand down in 2019 when it was revealed by @hopenothate that she had posted racist and anti-Islamic statements online, and shared posts from Tommy Robinson and PA leader Mark Collett. Before that she had been a leading member of UKIP.
She is one of 13 English Democrats candidates standing in the election, including four members of Patriotic Alternative. Their deposits are being paid by EDs leader Robin Tilbrook.
But in a statement posted earlier today Blaiklock called on voters to : “Vote Reform, Do not vote for me, in Great Yarmouth…it’s all we have between us and an Islamic state”.
Is it a coincidence that the English Democrats have a now-no-longer-secret electoral pact with PATRIOTIC ALTERNATIVE (“PA”), but also a registered pact with Ukip called the PATRIOTS ALLIANCE (“PA” too). Was this confusion intentional, or merely stupid?
Odd.
Despite her declaration, Blaiklock is still a candidate against Reform etc, and surely as an experienced politician she knew that after 4 pm on Friday 7th June, any “withdrawal” is without legal effect. She will still be on the ballot papers and votes for her will be included in the count. Why withdraw only now?
Odder.
The only way a party candidate (rules different for Independents) can prevent that happening after the cut-off time is to die, which always works but seems drastic.
https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/guidance-acting-returning-officers-administering-a-uk-parliamentary-election-great-britain/nominations/death-a-candidate
And why would a micro-party dedicated to breaking up the Union or otherwise gaining English independence or full autonomy from the rest, and which didn’t have much baggage worse than people confusing it with Yaxley-Lennon’s EDL, throw it all away by getting into bed(s) with two thoroughly discredited pariah parties, UKIP and PA?
That’s oddest of all.
Is Mr Tilbrook OK?
From (prepress)
THE DECLINE AND COLLAPSE OF THE UNITED KINGDOM INDEPENDENCE PARTY (UKIP)
Colourful Controversy
Blaiklock stood for UKIP in Norfolk County council elections in May 2017, again for UKIP in June 2017’s general election in Great Yarmouth, quit UKIP and its controversial leader Gerard Batten in controversy to form the Brexit party, from which she was later ejected, also in controversial circumstances, and was then turned down for membership by the Conservative Party in August 2019 – which apparently came as a surprise, if only to her.
Then, in February 2022, even more controversially since the by-election followed the stabbing to death of the popular incumbent Conservative MP by an Islamic State supporter, she appeared for the English Democrats in Southend West. In moves widely condemned as opportunistic and unprincipled, UKIP also contested this election, both parties receiving derisory shares of the votes, finishing behind the Psychedelic Movement to legalise cannabis and soft drugs, and far behind the number of spoilt ballots.
When the founder/leader of the English Democrats, Robin Tilbrook, controversially announced in September 2023 he had entered into a merger with UKIP and its ‘de facto’ leader-and-everything-else Ben Walker, a man with a chequered past and present, Blaiklock had completed a Grand Tour of the Right, returning to where she had started off. It is conceded that the UKIP of recent years, which exists solely to enrich Walker by diverting legacies, bears no resemblance to Nigel Farage’s party which she had joined in 2016, and it seems improbable Blaiklock, who appears to be motivated by principles, will stomach this unsavoury connection for long.
Her recent announcement for people not to vote for her in Great Yarmouth in the 2024 General Election, but to vote for the Reform UK Party instead, comes as no surprise, and suggests her extensive and controversial travels are not yet concluded. When approached for comment, an anonymous source in that party did not hold out hope that any application by her for membership would be entertained.
We watch with interest.
Reference
“A UKIP Candidate Brought a Photo of Her Black Husband to Hustings to Prove UKIP Isn’t Racist” https://www.vice.com/en/article/d7aegq/a-ukip-candidate-brought-a-photo-of-her-black-husband-to-hustings-to-prove-ukip-isnt-racist