TWO of UKIP’s leading politicians in Thurrock have said they will stand down from the party if Anne-Marie Waters wins its leadership election on an anti-Muslim ticket.

In a joint statement released yesterday, party leader councillor Graham Snell and deputy leader councillor Roy Jones said: “When we joined UKIP, we did so primarily because we wanted to do our bit to help bring about our Country’s exit from the EU.

“We were proud to stand for election and go on to become UKIP councillors and we have both worked hard to serve the communities that put their faith in us at the ballot box.

"Ours is a patriotic party, a party that values the traditions of this country and its people.

“A party that believes our laws should have supremacy, not the laws of a foreign, un-elected bureaucracy.

"Locally, we have tried hard to focus on our residents’ needs and ensure their concerns are at the heart of everything we seek to do.

"The party that we both signed up to believes that everybody should be treated with respect and within the laws of the land, that no one group should be singled out for ‘special attention’ because of the misdeeds of a few.

“Unfortunately, there is a candidate in the up-coming leadership election who has chosen to stand on a principle upon which we, as leader and deputy leader of the UKIP group, do not agree with.

“Anne-Marie Waters has chosen to single out those following the Muslim faith for ‘special attention’.

"She wants UKIP to become the anti-Muslim party and has set out a whole range of anti-Muslim policies.

"It is her absolute right to do so, if she feels so very strongly about the subject - she is perfectly entitled to make it her election platform.

“However, it is fundamentally at odds with everything we joined UKIP for.

"It is an agenda we do not agree with and will not follow should Anne-Marie win.

“Therefore, we both give notice that; in the event that Anne-Marie Waters wins the UKIP Leadership election, we will be resigning our membership of the party the very next day and will be standing down as UKIP councillors to spend the rest of our terms as Independents.

“We both hope that it doesn’t come to that but we felt it important that all of our members locally and across the country be made aware of our stance on this matter.”

Ann-Marie Waters has divided UKIP with her anti-Muslim campaign for leadership of the party.

She leads a group called Sharia Watch and on it has posted a statement calling for an end to immigration from Muslim countries.

The new leader will be announced at the party conference in Torquay on September 29.

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