UKIP in Croydon, having unloaded the constant embarrassment that is Winston McKenzie, could be about to encounter a different kind of squirm-making, after selecting Peter Staveley as their London Assembly candidate for Croydon and Sutton.
Peter Staveley: UKIP’s canvassing-lite candidate
Staveley was selected last month. In common with an election campaign last year that was so low-profile as to be subterranean, when he did very little active canvassing against Gavin Barwell when supposedly “running” in the General Election in Croydon Central, Staveley has yet even to issue a press release to announce his selection.
There may be a reason for this, though.
After a series of polite requests, written demands and lawyers’ letters, Croydon Council has begun recovery action for the return of unspent grant funds from the Croydon Communities [sic] Consortium. That could affect Staveley, who was the CCC vice-chair for a year, including some of the period when he was a UKIP election candidate.
Other officers of CCC who may be subject to recovery action through the courts include Sanderstead resident Elizabeth Ash, the self-appointed “Croydon libraries campaign”, Janet Stollery, a former UKIP member and now chair of a Coulsdon residents’ association, and Mark Johnson, a failed Tory local election candidate.
CCC had previously attracted controversy when Staveley’s predecessor as its vice-chair, Clive Locke, issued a series of racist and Islamophobic messages and images on social media. CCC never took any action against Locke for his conduct, preferring to pretend it never happened. Locke remains a stalwart attender of CCC’s events.
A senior figure at the council told Inside Croydon of the recovery action: “The legal process is progressing, so I can’t really say much more, but as a matter of principle we will do everything we can to collect any money owing.”
Having such recovery action – for a couple of thousand pounds, plus all the council’s legal costs – hanging over him while ostensibly “running” a UKIP election campaign might be bad enough for Davidson Road resident Staveley.
To make matters worse, UKIP’s Croydon Central and Croydon South branch recently appointed Staveley as their… treasurer.
Croydon’s Kippers might soon be wishing they had Winston back…
Staveley did not respond to Inside Croydon‘s request for a comment.
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So we are talking about a couple of thousand pounds here. Recovery of which is hardly enough to save our bankrupt Croydon Council after years of financial mismanagement, and this grant is probably a testament to it. However, lets throw the same vitriolic journalism at Kids Company (in the news recently). Over 19 years they received £37million pounds of public money, yet still went bust a week after receiving a further £3million, and not a UKIP member in sight. Good job the clowns running the Croydon Council chasing a pittance aren’t sitting in Whitehall. Trying to recover that sort of money would turn their underwear a different colour!
Apart from the fact that we are speaking about public money here, and its abuse by a small clique, whatever happened to two wrongs not making a right?
Maybe if there had been better controls on Kids Company activities at an earlier stage, the abuses would never have amounted to the millions now alleged. But of course, the suggestion is that no officials – right to the “top” and Call Me Dave Cameron – were willing to take decisive action because of the emotional blackmail used by the charity’s management.
A bit like the faux moral outrage adopted by Hyacinth Bucket and her UKIP mates at CCC.