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Kilroy resigns UKIP whip
Last updated at 00:00am on 27.10.04
Robert Kilroy-Silk said today he had resigned the UK Independence Party whip.
The former chat-show host said he was leaving the Ukip group because he could no longer work with it.
Mr Kilroy-Silk will remain a member of the party but will now sit as an independent Euro MP.
Speaking from Strasbourg he told PA News: "These people wanted to metaphorically hang me a few days ago. Now they have found they can't and they want me to be their friend. I don't do that and I have resigned the whip."
Ukip welcomed the decision. A party spokesman said: "Robert Kilroy-Silk doesn't do much except generate negative press comment.
"If he has withdrawn from the whip then to a certain extent he ceases to be our problem. But we would remind him that the people of the East Midlands voted for a Ukip MEP and not a maverick independent.
"We welcome the peace that will hopefully return to Ukip and will allow us to get on with the task of fighting the EU rather than fighting Kilroy-Silk."
