Model Jo Marney, the girlfriend of UKIP leader Henry Bolton, has apologised for the seemingly racist remarks she made about Meghan Markle.
25-year-old Marney had sent out a series of messages claiming Prince Harry’s ‘black American’ fiancee would ‘taint’ the Royal Family and that ‘her seed’ would pave the way for a ‘black king’. Which is a daft thing to say in itself as his brother Prince William is actually in line to succeed the throne – but that’s UKIP mentality for you.
In a statement to the MailOnline Marney issued an apology for her remarks.
She said:
I’d like to say I’m absolutely devastated by the messages that I’ve sent and the distress that I’ve caused anyone by those messages.
They were unnecessary, they were reckless, they were overly exaggerated purely for effect.
They were never intended to be put in the public domain and I’d like to take this opportunity to offer my sincere and deepest apologies to anyone I’ve hurt and for the distress and embarrassment I’ve caused my family, friends and the party.
However, despite the apology politicians, including UKIP members, are calling for Bolton’s resignation. Members of his party are pleading for the 54-year-old to leave ‘quickly’ and ‘quietly’.
If Bolton does leave his post – which seems inevitable seeing as UKIP have a revolving door of leaders who don’t know whether they’re coming or going these days – he would be the party’s fifth leader to step down.
UKIP’s chair, Paul Oakden, said Bolton is now in a difficult position and he needs to come up with a decision to ‘help remedy the situation’, he adds that party members need to get ‘behind our leader 100% in taking that battle forward’.
Speaking to BBC’s Sunday Politics, Oakden said:
I think it is very clear that Henry is increasingly in a position where he’s got some difficult decisions to make.
Whether or not the party decides it is willing to give that support to Henry is for the party to decide.
However, UKIP MEP Bill Etheridge, an influential member in their ranks has taken a different view. On Twitter he wrote:
I am calling for Henry Bolton to resign as Ukip leader.
A quick resignation is now essential to allow the party to regroup and campaign properly for Brexit.
In the fallout from Marney’s comments Bolton, a former army officer and a relative unknown who replaced former party leader Paul Nuttall after last year’s General Election, informed UKIP voters (via Twitter) that his girlfriend’s membership had been suspended by Oakden.
