Stephen Cleeve suspended as parliamentary candidate by UKIP

The Kensington & Chelsea Chronicle reports here that Stephen Cleeve has been suspended by UKIP as their parliamentary candidate for Kensington 'pending further investigations'.

The Chronicle reports incorrectly that Stephen Cleeve was 'involved with a whisky scam in Australia'. Cleeve certainly attempted to sell plots of land in the UK to Australians but not I think whisky.

Cleeve said: "I am not banned from being a company director." This is correct as his 8 year ban on being a UK company director ended on 7th February 2008.  

Cleeve told the Chronicle that "I am certain that further investigation will prove I have done nothing wrong and I look forward to clearing my name, and standing for parliament."

To clarify the situation regarding the closure of Forrester & Lamego Ltd in 1997 I checked the documents at Companies House. On 23rd July 1997 Forrester & Lamego Ltd was ordered by Mr Justice Robert Walker in London's High Court to be wound up under the provisions of the Insolvency Act 1986 following a petition by the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry presented on 11th February 1997.

The judge also ordered that: 'the costs of the Petitioner of the said Petition including the costs of 14th February 1997 and 5th March 1997 be paid out of the assets of the said Company such Order as to costs to be without prejudice to the Petitioner's liberty to apply on notice for the costs of the Petition to be borne by Mr Cleeve (a director) personally'. 

At the hearings on 14th February and 5th March Stephen Cleeve and his lawyers had successfully fought off the DTI's initial attempts to close the company in the public interest.

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8th April 2010: It appears from UKIP's site that Stephen Cleeve is no longer UKIP's candidate for Kensington. He has been replaced by Lady Caroline Pearson.

8th April 2010 22.25: An apparent change of mind as the message is now: We still haven't finalised our candidate to stand in Kensington. Find out how you can get involved in other ways, or donate by clicking  here.

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Stephen Cleeve (on twitter  8:46 AM Apr 8th via web) 
Sadly business commitments have forced me to stand down as the UKIP candidate for Kensington, I wish Lady Caroline Pearson all the best.

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Tony Hetherington in the Mail on Sunday (10th April 2010) devoted a whole page to Stephen Cleeve in the Money section.

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13th April: It turns out that it is Lady Caroline Pearson, who is replacing Stephen Cleeve, but this time she has a fuller title that includes 'of Rannoch'.

Stephen Cleeve to stand as MP for Kensington

According to a report in Thursday's Kensington & Chelsea Chronicle, the entrepreneurial Stephen Cleeve will be standing for parliament at the forthcoming general election. I gather that he is the UKIP candidate for Kensington. 

Should Stephen Cleeve be elected to parliament I'm convinced he will be a model MP. Cleeve's election is not yet a certainty as he is standing against Sir Malcolm Rifkind, the current MP and a seasoned campaigner.  Rifkind's majority at the 2005 election was 12,418 with 57.9% of the votes cast. UKIP's candidate in 2005 polled 395 votes, while Sir Malcolm stacked up 18,144 votes. (However, see boundary changes below.*)

Although the odds would appear to be against Stephen Cleeve, were he to pull off one of the shocks of the forthcoming election, his experience in the drinks' trade – barrels of whisky, millennium Champagne and Port – could be extremely useful in the House of Commons.

Stephen Cleeve is able to think outside the box: he is the only man I know to have offered pipes of vintage character Port as an investment through his company – Forrester & Lamego Ltd, which was closed in London's High Court in the public interest in July 1997. Stephen Cleeve was also a director of the Napier Spirit Company, which offered barrels of malt whisky as an investment. The company was closed in the public interest in the High Court in February 1997. Stephen Cleeve was disqualified from being a UK director from 29.2.2000 to 7.2.2008.

Should Parliament consider relocating to a quieter, less congested agricultural area, Stephen Cleeve could advise his fellow MPs through his extensive experience in land banking through organisations and partnerships such as the European Land Sales Partnership and Commercial Land. The enterprising and entrepreneurial Mr Cleeve made a number business trips to Australian property shows around 2004/2005. Regrettably the states of Victoria and Western Australia both issued public warnings about Stephen Cleeve and his land banking companies.

Through an advert in vivastreet Cleeve has also been looking for investment opportunities in businesses:

'I am looking to invest in new growing business seeking £1,000 to £300,000.

I am renowned investor and was involved in successful advertising concepts in airports around the world. Also an innovative Champagne concept which cut out the greedy middle man in the wine trade and put customers direct to wine houses.

Other successful business that I have invested in: magazines, recruitment, publishing.’

 * Parliamentary boundary changes that come into force for the forthcoming general election split the old Kensington & Chelsea constituency into two: Kensington and Fulham & Chelsea. Although the new constituency of Kensington covers a significant part of the present Kensington & Chelsea constituency, there are new areas so the 2005 results can only be a rough guide.   

Stephen Cleeve's UKIP candidate's page is here.