One of the UK Independence Party’s more eccentric members, Winston McKenzie, has quit the party and claimed he’s the victim of racial discrimination, despite defending the party against such accusations, and rising to a remarkably high level over the course of his few years in the organisation.
But Mr. McKenzie told Breitbart London at the UKIP conference this year that he was upset with not being selected for a position in London’s upcoming Mayoral and Assembly member elections. It is this, rather than his newfound accusations, that are believed to be behind his resignation.
Mr McKenzie, who is 60 years old and insists on being called “the champ” despite a short-lived and unsuccessful boxing career, stood for the party at the General Election in May 2015 in Croydon, which he has regularly described as a “dump”.
The real racists are the 3 little pigs who have sold off British Sovereignty – not the UKIP fox. CHAMP
— Winston McKenzie (@WinstonMcK) May 17, 2014
Despite his consistently embarrassing behaviour, including circumventing the UKIP press office and booking himself in for high profile, car crash interviews, McKenzie was repeatedly given the benefit of the doubt and curried favour with Party Chairman Steve Crowther. UKIP leader Nigel Farage is also known to be a long-standing fan of McKenzie’s antics, despite the man having been in almost every major political party in his short career.
UKIP sources have told Breitbart London that Mr McKenzie was fairly assessed for the London Mayoral Elections and failed. The interviews are all believed to have been witnessed and recorded, for fears that angry, failed candidates would lash out at the party.
ITV reports that Mr. McKenzie is “angry at being passed over by party bosses selecting UKIP’s candidate for London mayor. In an exclusive interview with ITV News, Mr McKenzie claimed he was blocked from progressing in the party because of racism in the “higher echelons”.
He said: “I’m incensed at the present moment because where I stand in UKIP, I feel as though I’ve been completely ignored, racially discriminated against by people in the higher echelons of the party,” he said.
“I’m talking about the leader’s followers.”
It is unclear who Mr. McKenzie is referring to. Even UKIP insiders seem baffled, as Mr. Farage and those around him persistently went to bat for Mr. McKenzie.
During the election campaign, Mr. McKenzie attempted to railroad the party into taking out expensive adverts in magazines that targeted the black and ethnic minority communities (BME) in Britain. The cost was believed to be prohibitive for the party, and Mr. McKenzie’s contacts at the magazine made it clear to the party that they would seek to undermine the party with the BME community unless they paid for advertising.
Breitbart London understands that Mr. McKenzie had a number of run ins with his local branch but was cleared of allegations against him.
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