Patrick O'Flynn steps down as UKIP economic spokesman
At a meeting of UKIP MEPs on Tuesday O'Flynn apologised for using the phrase "snarling, thin-skinned and aggressive" to describe Farage. He said that the comments were a "fragment of a wider passage" and did not represent his views.
He wrote: "I would like to express to colleagues my sincere regret at going public with my frustrations about the turn of events following polling day. And, more than that, I would like to apologise directly to Nigel for the phrase 'snarling, thin-skinned and aggressive'. This was a fragment of a wider passage about perceptions and is not what I think of him. Nonetheless, I should have known better than anyone what use would be made of phrases that were both unfair and unkind."
Last week UKIP faced what looked from the outside like a civil war after O'Flynn's comments were widely reported. Major party donors were among those calling on Farage to step down (again) following the decision by the party's National Executive Committee to refuse his letter of resignation.
However, following the resignation of Matt Richardson, UKIP party secretary, and the dismissal of senior Farage aide Raheem Kassam the waters seem to have calmed. Anonymous party sources had claimed that Richardson and Kassam were part of a "Tea Party set" within UKIP that had become ever more aggressive and were "out of control."
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