CYPRUS MAIL Saturday, May 4, 2013
9
Britain
Anti-EU party shakes Tories in local elections
BRITAIN TODAY ‘Plebgate’ bike sold for £10,600
UKIP gains a threat to Cameron in 2015 By Andrew Osborn THE anti-European Union UK Independence Party made big gains in local elections, siphoning support from Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservatives in a vote that underlined the threat it poses to his re-election chances in 2015. Early results showed UKIP had won 42 council seats - as many as Labour - after seven of 35 councils had been declared and that it had polled an average 26 per cent of the vote, the best result by a fourth party since World War Two. UKIP, which wants Britain to leave the European Union and an end to “open-door immigration”, also pushed Cameron’s Conservatives into third place in an election for a national parliamentary seat in northern England, a humiliating blow for the prime minister. The results showed UKIP could split the centre-right vote at the next national election, making it harder for Cameron to defeat Labour,
which leads his Conservatives by up to 10 per cent in opinion polls as economic austerity persists.
TORY MALCONTENTS Yesterday’s outcome is also likely to reignite questions about Cameron’s leadership from malcontents within his own party who complain he is too liberal and to pile pressure on him to take a tougher stance on Europe and immigration, issues on which he has already tacked to the right. Full results of the elections for more than 2,000 council seats in England and Wales were expected later yesterday. UKIP said it had tapped a wider public disenchantment with Britain’s three mainstream parties, which it argues are effectively all leftleaning social democrat-style parties. “We’ve got three parties who have given away the ability to govern our own country, who have led us into near bankruptcy and who have pursued open-door immigration poli-
cies,” Nigel Farage, UKIP’s leader, told BBC radio. “We want to fundamentally change British politics. It can happen.” Though represented in the European Parliament, UKIP currently has no MPs in the British parliament. Labour, which has controlled South Shields since 1935, held onto the national parliamentary seat that was previously occupied by David Miliband, brother of Labour leader Ed Miliband and a former foreign minister. But UKIP won 24 per cent of the vote, its second highest result in such an election. Grant Shapps, the chairman of the Conservative party, said his party, the senior partner in a two-party coalition, had heard the voters’ message “loud and clear”. “We are offering a lot of the things that people say they’re concerned about,” he said. But he emphasised the local nature of the election. “People’s aren’t voting for who runs the country, they’re voting for local councils.” The real choice at the next na-
Growing success: UKIP leader Nigel Farage poses for a photograph with a pint of beer in the Marquis of Granby pub, in Westminster, in London yesterday tional vote in 2015 would be between Labour and the Conservatives, he said. He and politicians from other parties have said UKIP’s growing success means it will come under increasing scrutiny and that voters will ultimately find it does not have
properly-developed policies, a claim UKIP rejects. Cameron has called the party “fruitcakes and closet racists” and several of its candidates were suspended from running in the elections after it emerged they had once belonged to far-right groups.
Bid to challenge alcohol minimum price fails Riots hero wins libel payout A LEGAL challenge to the introduction of a minimum price for alcohol in Scotland has been dismissed in court. Scotland’s highest civil court has refused a petition led by the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) against legislation which would see a minimum unit price of 50p brought in north of the border. Judge Lord Doherty, sitting at the Court of Session in Edinburgh, has ruled that the legislation was not outside the competence of the Scottish Parliament, and that it is within the devolved competence and powers of Scottish ministers. The SWA and other Euro-
Scotland’s highest civil court dismissed the petition pean wine and spirits producers argued that the law, passed at the Scottish Parliament last year, breaches the UK’s European Union (EU) treaty obligations
because it would restrain trade. They also said it will be ineffective in tackling alcohol misuse, will penalise responsible drinkers and damage the industry. The SWA and its partners argued that any restriction on EU trade could not be justified on health grounds. The also argued that the Alcohol (Minimum Pricing) (Scotland) Act 2012 breached the Acts of Union, which created the UK, and the Scotland Act 1998 which created the Scottish Parliament. The SWA will appeal against yesterday’s decision by the Court of Session, according to chief executive Gavin Hewitt.
A GOOD Samaritan who helped vulnerable people caught up in the Hackney riots has accepted substantial undisclosed libel damages from the Metropolitan Police for continuing to publish a poster suggesting he had been involved in the disorder. Leslie Austin, who works in housing services in the east London borough and has held numerous voluntary posts in the community, was commended and thanked by individual police officers on several occasions on the night of August 8, 2011, London’s High Court heard. He escorted a distressed elderly woman past the trouble, ensuring she got home safely, and removed debris from around a bus so the
driver could continue on his journey. He also helped people who appeared to be trapped in a building close to which a car had been set alight. But, said Matthew Nicklin QC, in May 2012, Austin was shocked to see his photo on a poster headed “Operation Withern Identity Sought” provided by the police to local shopkeepers for display. It asked for help in identifying the people pictured, including Austin, who were described as having been “involved in the disorder”. “This was extremely distressing to the claimant. Not only was it false in his case, but he felt his safety to be at risk as there had been revenge attacks following the riots.”
FORMER chief whip Andrew Mitchell’s bicycle, which was at the centre of the “plebgate” row, has raised £10,600 for charity after it was sold on eBay. Mitchell was riding the seven-year-old bike when police officers refused to let him leave Downing Street via the main gate in September last year. It was claimed at the time that Mitchell swore at the officers and called them “plebs”. Mitchell - who strenuously denies the allegation that he called the officers “plebs” - was forced to resign after a series of damaging headlines. He put the 18-speed Reflex Westminster on sale to give it a “good home out of the limelight”, and after a five-day auction the bike fetched £10,600 on eBay Thursday night, which will go to Nyumbani UK, which helps HIV and Aids-affected children in Kenya.
Cancer figure rise THE number of women under the age of 50 who are diagnosed with breast cancer is on the rise, a charity has warned. In 2010, 10,068 women under the age of 50 in the UK were told they had the disease - 2,300 more than the number diagnosed in 1995, Cancer Research UK said. The charity said one in five breast cancer cases are now among women under the age of 50. While the reason behind the increase is unclear, the charity suggested a rise in alcohol intake, the use of the contraceptive pill and women having fewer children and in later life could be to blame. Routine screening for breast cancer is currently offered to women aged 50 to 70, but recent changes to the programme will see those in their late forties also invited.
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