Ukip official quits though cleared of harassment
A SENIOR Ukip (UK Independence Party) official quit his post yesterday despite being cleared of wrongdoing in his relationship with a prospective parliamentary candidate.
Roger Bird was suspended as general secretary this month after Natasha Bolter, a former Labour activist, claimed that he sexually harassed her.
In a statement, the party said that he had been cleared of the accusation but would stand down by mutual agreement as a result of ‘‘unfortunate publicity stimulated by media speculation’’.
Confusion surrounded the basis of the decision. A disciplinary hearing concluded Bird had entered into a consensual relationship with Bolter but that this ‘‘did not compromise the integrity of its candidate selection process.’’
Ukip sources have previously said that it is against party rules for an official involved in the selection process to be in a sexual relationship with a candidate.
Allegations about the relationship between the pair first emerged a fortnight ago. Bolter, a highprofile Ukip candidate who was about to take part in hustings in the target seat of South Basildon & East Thurrock, quit the party, claiming that Bird had sexually harassed her.
She told this newspaper that he had propositioned her at a London club while interviewing her as a prospective parliamentary candidate, and that at a subsequent meeting he bought her a £169 Ted Baker dress and told her that she ‘‘now looked like a girl who could get in a taxi’’.
On the same day she left the party, Ukip announced Bird had been suspended from his £75,000 a year job over Bolter’s claims.
The party said it had spent a month investigating ‘‘allegations of impropriety . . . with regard to candidate selection’’ as well as hiring external HR consultants to interview both parties and examine the evidence.
Bird responded by releasing a series of text messages, which he claimed showed he was in a consensual relationship with Bolter, 35. He strenuously denied sexually harassing her and said that his six-week relationship with her had not begun until midSeptember, a week after he had finished assessing her and she had been added to the ‘‘approved list’’ of prospective parliamentary candidates.
Bolter insisted Bird was lying about having a consensual sexual relationship with her, although her credibility weakened when it emerged that she had not attended the University of Oxford as she claimed. There were other inconsistencies in her story.