New Culture Forum founder and former UKIP deputy leader Peter Whittle has died, his organisation said in a statement on Friday.
Peter Whittle has died aged 64, just weeks after he announced that he had been diagnosed with stage four oesophageal cancer. It was said in a statement that he had died on Thursday evening surrounded by his loved ones.
Well known in the Westminster right-wing political scene for both his generosity and impish sense of humour, Whittle had started out in television, working on cultural programmes and writing newspaper and magazine columns on arts and culture issues. Later in life he turned to politics and was elected to the London Assembly for Nigel Farage’s then-party, UKIP.
Whittle served as the leader of the UKIP faction in London and later was briefly deputy party leader, but stepped away from the party as it slipped from prominence in the post-Farage era.
During his time on the London Assembly, Whittle frequently hit the headlines as he locked horns with London Mayor Sadiq Khan. He was one of a group of London MLAs who were early in raising the prospect of “a Rotherham Style Sexual Grooming Gang Situation” existing in London, which was long denied but now are treated more seriously by the authorities.
Whittle was a stalwart supporter of Brexit and told Breitbart News in the final days leading up to the 2016 referendum that the British people had lost trust in the “groupthink” political and media establishment and would vote to leave the European Union to give the elites a bloody nose. He called for a “great renewal” of the country to get past a period of stasis.
In 2006 Whittle founded the New Culture Forum, which he led until his death. Whittle had been due to host on Wednesday NCF’s flagship annual lecture, this year on whether “Britain can be saved” given the rapidly approaching moment where the country is due to becoming minority white British, but was unable to attend due to ill health.
Speaking in a statement in October, Whittle revealed his cancer diagnosis. He said: “Early this year in May, I was diagnosed with stage four oesophageal cancer. As we all know, there is no stage five. My cancer is apparently a very rare one and highly aggressive. Since that time I have undergone chemotherapy treatments which unfortunately have not worked”.
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