19 February,2018 05:53 AM IST | London | Agencies
Henry Bolton
Britain's far-right UK Independence Party has sacked its leader after weeks of controversy surrounding his girlfriend's racist messages targeting Prince Harry's fiancee Meghan Markle. Henry Bolton, who had refused to resign amid mounting pressure from within the party, was sacked following a 63 per cent vote in favour of a no-confidence motion against the leader at an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) of the party in Birmingham on Saturday. "I think it's going to be difficult to unite the party, what we have effectively had is a rejection of a new draft constitution, a re-organisation and indeed a new way of doing politics," said Bolton, who is thought to be considering legal action to challenge the result.
The 54-year-old former Army officer had faced calls to go after it emerged he was in a romantic relationship with Jo Marney, a model 29 years his junior, who had described black people as 'ugly' and said Harry's mixed-race fiancee would 'taint' the royal family, paving the way for a 'black king'. The married father of two, who reportedly walked out on his family over Christmas last year suffered a string of UK Independence Party (UKIP) resignations following the leaked texts. "I have said all along that once we got the EGM out of the way I would spend time sorting out my private life," he said in reference to his relationship with Marney, who he said he had "strong affections" for. Marney responded to the EGM vote by tweeting, "My love for Henry is unconditional of political leaderships."
Bolton was elected in September 2017 in the wake of UKIP's disastrous performance in the last year's General Election. The party's national executive committee expressed no confidence in him last month, triggering this weekend's ballot. He lost the no-confidence motion by 867 votes to 500.
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