Ukip MEP suspended amid inflated expenses allegations

Ukip MEP Janice Atkinson has been suspended from the party after her chief of staff was filmed allegedly claiming inflated expenses for a lunch event.

Atkinson, who once called a Thai constituent a "ting tong", hosted a Women's Lunch at The Hoy restaurant in Margate, Kent, during Ukip's Spring Conference on 27 February.

A video, secretly filmed by The Sun, appears to show her chief of staff Christine Hewitt later asking the restaurant manager for an invoice for a much higher sum than the bill she had originally received.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Hewitt allegedly said the claim would be made to the Alliance for Direct Democracy in Europe, a pan-European political party dominated by Ukip, and its foundation, The Initiative for Direct Democracy in Europe, both of which receive funding from European taxpayers.

"The idea is we overcharge them slightly, because that's the way of repatriating..." she is heard to say in the video.

Atkinson, who earns close to £80,000 for her work as an MEP, plus expenses, had been named as Ukip's candidate for MP in Folkestone and Hythe in Kent, but has now had the party whip removed.

The Sun says she could also face a police inquiry, which would likely focus on whether she knew about Hewitt's alleged actions.

Without going into detail, Farage told the Daily Telegraph it "would appear there was the intention to produce a receipt that may not have been genuine", although he added that the claim had not actually been made.

"If what [Atkinson] has been suspended for is right I am astonished she could have done something quite so stupid. I am very, very shocked and surprised."

A party spokesman said it was "incredibly disappointed with Miss Atkinson, who appears to have exercised extremely poor judgment in acting in a way that the party has never and would never condone".

He added: "The party has acted swiftly and immediately and, just as we showed when we suspended another MEP for financial irregularities, we always maintain a zero-tolerance attitude towards acts of this nature."

Atkinson and Hewitt are yet to respond to requests for comment.