Peninsula Councillor Mick Pendergast has today resigned from UKIP, according to Medway Elects:
BREAKING: Medway Elects understands that Peninsula ward councillor Mick Pendergast has resigned from UKIP and will sit as an independent.
— Medway Elects (@MedwayElects) October 26, 2018
Although there has not yet been an official comment from Cllr Pendergast, it is understood he has already communicated his decision to council officials. His reasons for resigning from UKIP are not yet known.
Cllr Pendergast will see out the rest of his term as an independent councillor.
Analysis: Decline of Medway UKIP
Cllr Pendergast’s resignation is the latest in a series of blows for the local party, which just four years ago held the accolade of being home to one of only two members of parliament to be elected for UKIP.
What started as a fairytale coming top in a nationwide poll and beginning to take seats away from Labour and the Conservatives on Medway Council soon began to crumble and descend into farce, as their vote share disintegrated and attention turned to their increasingly unhealthy obsession with Islam and stories of former party officers suing them for unpaid expenses (including cream crackers).