Senior UKIP Leader Slams Party’s European PR Man As “Total Liability”

David Lawrence - 13 01 17

Evans referred to the UKIP PR man as “bloody Kelly” and a “total liability” after he released a series of tweets making derogatory comments about the widower of Jo Cox MP and claiming that Turkey was “on the same side as ISIS, Saudi and Qatar”.

Suzanne Evans' reaction

Suzanne Evans’ reaction

Kelly has a long history of making inflammatory statements through his official Twitter account in his post as Director of Communications for UKIP’s European group, Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD). Kelly uses the same account to publicise the official press statements of the EFDD.

Evans, UKIP’s current Deputy Chair and Health and Parliamentary spokesman, vented her frustration to the now defunct Reform UKIP! grassroots pressure group in a private message after seeing Kelly’s provocative statements.

Evans is considered a moderate voice within the party and decried the “far right” within UKIP during her leadership bid late last year.

Kelly has previously used social media to share wildly Islamophobic memes and “news” articles from notorious rightwing conspiracy sites.

With tensions high in the wake of the ISIS terror attacks in Nice last July, Kelly chose to demonise Islam as a “death cult” that “thrives on violence”. Attached was a quote attributed to (but in fact misquoting) Winston Churchill: “Islam is as dangerous in a man as rabies in a dog”.

Even more worryingly Kelly has posted content from the notorious conspiracy website InfoWars, including an article ‘Feminised males will allow Muslims to conquer Europe’.

InfoWars is run by rightwing firebrand Alex Jones, who has alleged that the Sandy Hook massacre (where 20 children and six staff were murdered at an elementary school) was a “false flag” attack by the American government in order to introduce gun control, and that President Obama was responsible for the Olklahoma tornado outbreak in 2013.

InfoWars remains a popular website among so-called “alt-right” circles.

Kelly has previously been criticised for referring to two Muslim MEPs as “Taliban” and singing pro-IRA songs in a Brussels pub while employed by UKIP to manage its public image. Kelly has also been accused of hounding an ethnic minority UKIP advisor to withdraw an official racism complaint made against a member of the Sweden Democrats, UKIP’s extreme-right ally in the European Parliament.

One of tweets by Hermann Kelly that provoked Suzanne Evans’ disapproval

One of tweets by Hermann Kelly that provoked Suzanne Evans’ disapproval

When we asked the European spokesman to comment on his Twitter history, Kelly’s full statement read: “Who cares… you are a political campaign group masquerading as a charity.”

Unfortunately for Kelly, it appears as if leaders in his own party do in fact care and are beginning to take notice of his irresponsible and contemptible public statements.

Hermann Kelly, UKIP’s Director of Communications for its European Parliament group, the EFDD

Hermann Kelly, UKIP’s Director of Communications for its European Parliament group, the EFDD

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