How disappointing – after all the work UKIP did to rid itself of racism.

It seems the girlfriend (now ex-girlfriend, if reports are accurate) of party leader Henry Bolton made racist comments on Facebook, about Prince Harry’s bride-to-be, Meghan Markle.

According to the Evening Standard:

In a series of messages published by the Mail on Sunday, Jo Marney reportedly said Ms Markle would “taint” the Royal Family, that she had a “tiny brain” and that black people were ugly.

It comes after Ms Marney faced a furious backlash when she branded Grenfell Tower a “nest of illegal immigrants” and labelled alleged victims of Harvey Weinstein “hard done by little rich girls”.

Mr Bolton has appeared on television to defend Ms Marney. It’s uncomfortable viewing:

Let’s be honest – he comes across as trying to distance himself from the comments and the person who made them.

His claim that people cannot remember everything they write on Facebook is risible, considering her comments must all have been written in recent months.

His claim that it is inexcusable for her comments to be exploited in an attempt to attack him is also unconvincing – as are his comments about discussions he had with her on the relevant subjects.

It seems she had every opportunity to come clean about what she had done, and his claim that the controversy come about just days into the relationship therefore rings hollow.

So the following, if true, would be unsurprising:

Of course the fact that Ms Marney is 25 years old and Mr Bolton is 54 – 29 years her senior – has nothing to do with anything at all, although this may be a hard position to argue, considering the fact that a young person has much to gain from an attachment to a person in a position of power; that is a fact of life that is unlikely to change any time soon. But the age difference has drawn the obvious remarks:

“Too dense”? We’re told she had four ‘A’ levels when she was 15, don’t you know!

And the end result of all this explanation?

According to The Independent, Mr Bolton is still likely to lose his place as party leader at a meeting on Sunday:

Ukip leader Henry Bolton will be forced out within days after his girlfriend was accused of racist remarks about Meghan Markle, a former party deputy chairwoman says.

Suzanne Evans said Mr Bolton’s decision to end his relationship with Jo Marney would fail to save his job – urging him to quit because he had “brought the party into disrepute”.

Otherwise, next Sunday’s special meeting of Ukip’s national executive committee would pass a vote of no confidence, she predicted – plunging the party into its fourth leadership battle in just 18 months.

“He has displayed an astonishing lack of judgment,” Ms Evans said, pointing out Mr Bolton had “portrayed himself as a family man” when he won the leadership last September.

“I think he has brought the party into disrepute and, certainly, people have been kicked out of the party for that in the past,” she told the BBC’s Daily Politics programme.

She agreed that “politicians have a right to a private life”, but added: “He has left his wife for a woman who is younger than his youngest daughter, who has turned out to have held some reprehensible views.”

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