Ukip defector Bashir: did he jump or was he pushed?

As Tories celebrate the defection of a Ukip MEP, Farage claims he had already been suspended

Amjad Bashir
(Image credit: Amjad Bashir/facebook)

Did the Ukip MEP Amjad Bashir, whose defection to the Tories was announced at the weekend, jump or was he pushed? And if the latter, have the Conservatives properly vetted him?

Bashir’s defection, following a private meeting with David Cameron in the PM’s Cotswolds constituency on Friday, was supposed to be a “deliciously chilled serving of revenge against Nigel Farage”, as the Daily Telegraph put it, for stealing two Tory MPs, Douglas Carswell and Mark Reckless, last autumn.

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