On Monday the 23rd of February, while Nigel Farage was in town announcing UKIP health policy, a funny thing happened. Mark Reckless introduced the audience to Mark Hanson, UKIP’s newly selected parliamentary candidate for Gillingham & Rainham.
Mark Hanson isn’t without history in the party – he was originally selected as the UKIP candidate for Rochester & Strood before Mark Reckless defected, which obviously disrupted his campaign somewhat.
All of this may be something of a surprise to one Martin Cook, who was previously selected by the local party to contest the Gillingham & Rainham seat. As little as last month, he was out campaigning in the constituency.
Martin Cooke PPC for Gillingham and Steve Newton PPC for Chatham and Aylesford in #Rochester to show their support pic.twitter.com/2OooNHFcpQ
— UKIP Rochester (@UKIPRochester) September 28, 2014
Still, we’re sure the other Medway UKIP candidate in that photo – Steve Newton, the candidate for Chatham & Aylesford – isn’t having any problems either, right? Oh, wait, he’s been removed from his position in recent months as well, and the seat is currently waiting for a new candidate to be selected.
A member of Medway UKIP wouldn’t offer any comment on the situation.