UKIP suspends Tom Wise

The UKIP chairman has issued a statement that -

The decision has been made today to suspend Tom Wise from the UK Independence Party group in the European Parliament, for failure to provide information regarding alleged financial irregularities that are now under investigation by OLAF (the European Anti Fraud Office).

Party Chairman John Whittaker said, "This decision should in no way be interpreted as prejudicial to the outcome of that enquiry.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the MEPs in Brussels," said Dr. Whittaker, "which was the first opportunity we have had to discuss this matter."

This follows on the statement a couple of days ago when UKIP offered no support to Wise. With his bank statement now in the public domain, the evidence against him looks strong.

Also unmentioned is UKIP's own stage managed enquiry, which was refused access to Wise's account. Hence UKIP could say that their enquiry hadn't found against him.

Presumably the leadership knew what the evidence was before. But now it's in the open, and Wise seems to have been cut adrift to fend for himself.