THIS WEEK UKIP Wales announced that their first choice regional Assembly candidate for mid and west Wales will be former Conservative MP for Tatton Neil Hamilton.
The former Ammanford Grammar pupil and Aberystwyth alumnus sprang to notoriety after abandoning a claim for libel against the Guardian newspaper linked to claims that he accepted money in exchange for parliamentary favours.
Mr Hamilton was forced to resign as Minister for Corporate Affairs over the claims. He subsequently attempted to sue Harrods owner and former Fulham Chairman Mohammed Al Fayed over claims made in the Channel 4 programme Dispatches that he had received payments of up to £110,000 and a free holiday in return for asking questions in Parliament about Harrods. The jury unanimously found in favour of Mr Al Fayed.
In 1997 he lost his parliamentary seat to Martin Bell, a BBC journalist running as an independent candidate. Following bankruptcy proceedings, he took a break from politics, before being elected to the UKIP National Executive in 2011.
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