Winston McKenzie

Winston Truman McKenzie (born 23 October 1953, in Jamaica) is a UK politician, notable for having joined every major political party, and for having stood as an independent or minor party candidate on numerous occasions. He most recently finished last in the 2010 UKIP leadership contest.

McKenzie was originally a middleweight boxer and was the All England National Amateur Boxing Champion, and he is an older brother of boxer Duke McKenzie. He contended that after an underprivileged childhood, "boxing was my salvation". However, his boxing career was cut short at 23 by two detached retinas. He later worked as a hairdresser, a rug wholesaler, a letting agent and a garage mechanic. He also ran a pub with his brothers, the McKenzie Bros Bar & Grill, which closed down in 2002 after a police raid resulted in 25 people on the premises being charged with drugs and firearms offences. He is now a youth worker.

In 2005, he unsuccessfully auditioned for "The X Factor".

Political career

McKenzie first joined the Labour Party in the 1980s. In 2002, he joined the Liberal Democrats, and in February 2003 was quoted in the press as saying "I'm still very involved with the Liberal Democrats and have every intention of standing for MP in the next election." By the September 2003 Brent East by-election, he had left the Liberal Democrats, and he stood as an Independent candidate, on a slogan of "The black voice for Great Britain" and a platform of an immediate end to all immigration and asylum, and increasing sports facilities for young people. He polled 197 votes (0.94%), coming 7th out of 16 candidates.

In 2004, McKenzie joined the newly-formed Veritas party, calling for "a blanket ban on immigration and asylum for one year", and becoming its principal spokesman on sport. In the 2005 general election, he stood for Veritas in Croydon North, coming 7th of 9 candidates with 324 votes (0.7%). After the election, he attacked party leader Robert Kilroy-Silk, whom he publicly blamed for his defeat, and for his lost deposit and other financial losses as a result of his campaign. He resigned from Veritas 2 weeks after the 2005 election (and 3 months after originally joining), before then rejoining Veritas when Kilroy-Silk stepped down as leader, so that he could stand for leader of Veritas. He lost. In between his two short memberships of Veritas, he stood in the 16 June 2005 Fieldway by-election to Croydon Council, as an Independent. He came 4th of 5 candidates, polling 47 votes (2.47%) - the only candidate he beat was standing for the Official Monster Raving Loony Party.

After the local press reported his 2004 "inaugural Croydon youth games ended in farce [in] October after many events were cancelled at short notice", he accused the local Conservative council of being "racist" in failing to support the endeavour, but he appears to have changed his opinion of the Conservatives by November 2006, when he joined the Conservative party, announcing his intention to be the next Mayor of London. He stood in 2007 for the Conservative party's nomination, but failed to attract enough support to make the shortlist. He then left the Conservative Party by the end of the year, and stood in the 2008 Mayoral election as an Independent candidate, under the slogans "I float like a butterfly and sting like a bee; I've got the policies they can't see" and "They said it couldn't be done". He came last of the 10 candidates, polling 5,389 votes. (0.22%)

In March 2009, McKenzie founded The Unity Party and announced he would be the Unity Party candidate for Croydon Central at the next UK general election. In October 2009, McKenzie reported that Unity had folded as a party because of the withdrawal of its main financial backer.

In September 2009 he joined the United Kingdom Independence Party and immediately announced he was a candidate in their leadership election to succeed Nigel Farage. However, as he was still the leader of the Unity Party, he was barred from standing in the leadership election, and his candidature was blocked. In February 2010 McKenzie was adopted as UKIP's candidate for Tottenham. In the 2010 general election he came 6th of 10 candidates in Tottenham, polling 466 votes (1.1%).

In September 2010, McKenzie stood again for leader of UKIP, after Lord Pearson of Rannoch resigned having only been leader for nine months. He came last of the four candidates, with 530 votes cast - his 5.3% share of the vote was his strongest showing in any election.

External links

• Campaign video of McKenzie as a UKIP candidate, 2010
• Campaign video of McKenzie as an Independent candidate, 2008
• Campaign video of McKenzie standing for the Conservative nomination for Mayor of London, 2007