Ukip Commonwealth spokesman forced to resign after he is exposed as leader of a kidnapping gang in Pakistan

A Ukip campaigner who helped to boost the party’s multi-cultural credentials has been revealed as the former leader of a Pakistani kidnapping gang.
Mujeeb ur Rehman Bhutto, the party’s  Commonwealth spokesman, organised a visit to a mosque for Ukip leader Nigel Farage and helped canvass in a key by-election in which the party came close to gaining its first MP.
But – in the latest embarrassment for the party – the 35-year-old has admitted being the ‘boss’ of a high-profile gang which struck in Karachi in 2004, in a kidnapping that netted him a £56,000 ransom payment.
Bhutto admitted charges in a British court the following year and received a seven-year jail sentence.

Mujeeb ur Rehman Bhutto has admitted being the 'boss' of a high-profile kidnapping gang

Last night, Ukip tried to distance itself from Bhutto, saying he resigned from the party after being confronted about his criminal history. Bhutto’s past – revealed on BBC
Newsnight – comes just a month after David  Silvester, a Ukip councillor in Oxfordshire, provoked ridicule by claiming that this winter’s floods were God’s revenge for the new law allowing gay marriage.
And last summer MEP Godfrey Bloom, who represents Yorkshire and The Humber, caused outrage when he said Britain should not be sending overseas aid to ‘bongo bongo land’.
Bhutto, from Leeds, told Newsnight he had admitted charges against him rather than risk being sent back to Pakistan and hanged.
He said: ‘The evidence which was brought against me was from Pakistan. The allegation was simply because of political rivalry.’
He said he planned to appeal against his conviction for conspiracy to blackmail.
He claimed the case against him in Pakistan had been thrown out by the country’s Supreme Court. But senior Pakistani police sources told the BBC that Bhutto is still wanted.

Bhutto previously campaigned with Ukip leader Nigel Farage - including organising a visit to a mosque

Embarrassment: Last month Ukip councillor David Silvester (right) claimed floods were God’s revenge for gay marriage. Last year Godfrey Bloom (left) said the UK should stop sending aid to 'bongo bongo land'

He regularly appeared as Ukip’s Commonwealth spokesman – including on the BBC – and as a party representative in local and national media. He organised a trip to a Leeds mosque for Mr Farage and canvassed with candidate Jane Collins during the 2012 Rotherham by-election, in which Ukip came second.
His apparent respectability as a politician was a far cry from the moment in June 2004 when a gang led by Bhutto kidnapped Ahmed Naeem, the son of a wealthy businessman, at gunpoint from a car in Karachi.
Five days later Bhutto flew to England. Police said at one point as he negotiated a ransom he threatened to cut the victim’s head off and post it to his father, Mohammed.
Police in Karachi assisted the victim’s family, and the ransom was delivered to a car park at Manchester’s Arndale shopping centre.
Ahmed Naeem was then released by the gang in Pakistan, but Bhutto was arrested by Greater Manchester Police.
The £56,000 ransom was found hidden at his house in Leeds, and he was forced to repay it.

Ex-Ukip Commonwealth spokesman convicted blackmailer

A Ukip spokesman has said Bhutto joined the party less than a year ago from the Conservative Party but has now resigned his membership. Bhutto canvassed with candidate Jane Collins (right) during the 2012 Rotherham by-election, in which Ukip came second 

He was sentenced under the name Majeebur Bhutto.
Sentencing, Judge Martin Steiger told him: ‘You came to the UK to avoid the risk of detection in Pakistan, where kidnapping is a capital offence.'

‘Mr Bhutto joined Ukip from the Conservative Party less than a year ago. When we recently became aware of possible issues relating to his past and raised the matter with him he resigned his membership'
- Ukip spokesman

In a regional Ukip newsletter from May 2013, Bhutto stated that he had been a member of the party since 2011.
He wrote: ‘Our policy in Ukip is not to attack foreign nations, but to work with like-minded parties and support them so there is no export of terrorism to our shores.’
Bhutto appeared as Ukip’s Commonwealth Spokesman during an appearance on BBC debating show The Big Questions in March 2013.
A Ukip spokesman said: ‘Mr Bhutto joined Ukip from the Conservative Party less than a year ago. When we recently became aware of possible issues relating to his past and raised the matter with him he resigned his membership. We understand he has since been invited to rejoin the Conservatives and may indeed have done so.’

DM