The Yorkshire Party candidate to be North Yorkshire mayor next year quit the party after a disagreement over a policy to hand out free chickens.
Keith Tordoff, who is from Pateley Bridge, pledged in an interview to give three chickens to 20,000 households in North Yorkshire.
But the policy had not been discussed in detail with the Yorkshire Party and thus Mr Tordoff will now seek election as an independent candidate.
He announced his resignation from the party this week.
Other disagreements included the Yorkshire Party’s website ‘not being up to date’ and there not being enough volunteers.
Mr Tordoff said:
“They don’t like stories like the chicken story.
“They really tried to clamp down and said that shouldn’t have been released.
“I’ve been contacted by one of the largest egg producers in the country saying they want to offer help.
“It stimulated the imagination of people but the Yorkshire Party leadership didn’t think it was appropriate and would make the party look a bit foolish or silly.”
Read more:
- Pateley Bridge man resigns as Yorkshire Party mayoral candidate
- Yorkshire Party mayoral candidate promises free chickens if elected
Mr Tordoff also said he recorded a promotional song based on the lyric in Dire Straits’ Money For Nothing ‘your chicks for free’.
He said:
“They didn’t want me to release that.
“It’s not going to diminish anything but unfortunately they couldn’t quite see through it.
“I don’t think they quite have the drive, the vision, the imagination, or my appeal to people to work on projects.”
Although he wished the Yorkshire Party the best, Mr Todoff said its leadership “went over the top” on their crackdown of his policy.
He said:
“They couldn’t grasp it.”
Yorkshire Party co-leader Bob Buxton said:
“Keith is used to being independent.
“He came up with the chicken story and that perhaps took away the emphasis from more substantial policies.
“I’m not saying it’s a bad policy but I would have liked to have fleshed it out a bit more.
“He’s very autonomous.
“It was all very polite but he felt and we felt it was best to part ways.”
The party will field a different candidate following the by-election in Selby and Ainsty triggered by Boris Johnson ally Nigel Adams.
