NIGEL Farage’s Brexit Party suffered its first big blow yesterday as it booted out an MEP for “abusing” his position.
The move to withdraw the whip from solicitor Andrew Kerr came as the arch Eurosceptic said he would stand in any upcoming General Election.
The Brexit Party chief said Mr Kerr – an MEP for the West Midlands – had behaved “unacceptably”.
While refusing to go into details, he said: “He’s acted in a way as an MEP making comments about a business and a product that he has a direct financial investment in and we think that’s unacceptable.”
He told Sky: “He is an MEP but he also is a shareholder in several businesses.
“And in our view one or two of the things he’s said and done as an MEP could be seen to potentially have brought him personal gain through his business.”
The decision is understood to have stemmed from a whistleblower who contacted party HQ.
In our view one or two of the things he’s said and done as an MEP could be seen to have brought him personal gain.
Nigel Farage
It comes just 125 days after the Brexit Party stunned UK politics by winning the European Elections in May – two months after Britain was supposed to leave the EU.
And the Brexit Party has fallen back in the polls as the Tories win over Eurosceptic support under Mr Johnson.
Mr Kerr, 61, was one of 29 MEPs elected in May for the Brexit Party.
A qualified solicitor, he previously set up a law firm and is a director of a firm that designs and supplies life saving equipment.
He is listed as a director of both Englands Safety Ltd and England Kerr Hands Solicitors Ltd.
His register of interests in the European Union also lists a third directorship of Waterside Manufacturing -a men’s clothing firm.
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