Kilroy warns UKIP over expulsion

Mr Kilroy-Silk says many UKIP members would leave with him

Ex-chat show host Robert Kilroy-Silk says UKIP would self-destruct if they expelled him from the party.

Mr Kilroy-Silk resigned from the party's group of MEPs on Wednesday but says he will not quit the party.

UKIP's national executive is due to discuss what to do about the MEP on Monday. One unnamed senior figure says it would be better without him.

But on Thursday, Mr Kilroy-Silk said: "If they expelled me they would be pressing the self-destruct button."

Voters deceived?

He said the party had few members when he had joined and now had thousands.

"If I go a lot of the membership will go with me," he said.

"I have had letters, phone calls and faxes from people saying if I go they are going."

Mr Kilroy-Silk has denied suggestions he could set up another party.

"I feel frustrated and guilty," he said. "I told the electorate we were a serious political party. But there is nothing there. My wife says I have carried out a fraud on the electorate."

Party feeling

It is thought unlikely the UKIP national executive will try to expel Mr Kilroy-Silk on Monday.

But the Press Association quoted a senior party source saying: "The feeling in the NEC is likely to reflect the feeling among the party membership.

"Nobody wants Kilroy-Silk to be the leader and increasingly they don't even want him to be a member."

On Wednesday, Mr Kilroy-Silk said his resignation from the parliamentary group was designed to help the other UKIP MEPs out of a hole.

He claimed they had discovered they could not oust him over his criticisms of the leadership.

UKIP leader Roger Knapman said he regretted Mr Kilroy-Silk's decision to leave the group and insisted nobody had pushed him out.

"He did have talents, particularly in the promotion of the party and of himself. But he has caused us a lot of negative coverage," he said.