Kevin Mahoney, the newly elected Independent councillor for Sully, says UKIP had “every opportunity to go from strength to strength” after the EU referendum. Mr Mahoney was originally elected to the Vale of Glamorgan Council in the last local elections as a UKIP councilor but he left the party last year.
Mr Mahoney says he left UKIP due to the selection of Neil Hamilton and Mark Reckless as AM candidates but he says the party does still have a place in politics. Talking about their lack of success in the UK at yesterday’s elections he said “poor judge of character” was to blame:
“The hierarchy of UKIP is full of total incompetence. None of them could get elected and if you look at any of the noteworthy people in UKIP they’ve never been elected to first past the post positions and they never will be.
“I’m not a great lover of any political party but UKIP had every opportunity to go from strength to strength after Brexit.”
So far UKIP have lost 80 council seats across the UK and have only won one seat. But UKIP leader Paul Nuttall says there is another reason for their lack of success. In a statement he said:
“We must remember that voters from across Britain made their way to polling stations last night to give their vote to UKIP. As a result of our outdated electoral system those voters are once again left without a voice.
We are the victims of our own success and now we pick ourselves up and go on to further success in the future.”
Mr Mahoney also spoke about why he thinks Independent candidates, including himself, have done so well in this year’s council elections in Wales and said “people voted for people who make a difference not based on political party.”
