Anti-EU UKIP party suspends two candidates

By William James LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's right-wing UKIP party has suspended two of its candidates for a national election as it attempts to limit damage to its image weeks before the May 7 vote in which it could play a decisive role. UKIP's rapid rise in popularity may cost Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives an outright victory, and the party hopes to use the election to advance its campaign to get Britain to leave the European Union. On Friday it said it had suspended Janice Atkinson, a member of the European Parliament, over what it called "allegations of a serious financial nature". It acted after The Sun newspaper released a secretly filmed video, which it said showed Atkinson's chief of staff asking for a falsely inflated invoice for a restaurant meal that she intended to claim back from an EU parliamentary group. "I was deeply shocked when I saw it. This was one of the most incredibly stupid and dishonest things I've ever seen in my life," UKIP leader Nigel Farage told LBC radio. Local police said they had received a report of fraud and that an investigation was under way. Shortly afterwards, UKIP said it had suspended a second party member over an unrelated workplace incident. A UKIP statement said they were conducting an investigation into Stephen Howd, who had been due to stand for election in northern England. Howd could not be reached at his workplace for comment. Atkinson was considered to be one of UKIP's higher-profile candidates. She did not answer calls to her mobile phone and there was no response to emailed requests for comment. The Sun video appeared to show a woman, described as Atkinson's chief of staff, negotiating with a restaurant manager over a false invoice made out to the Alliance for Direct Democracy in Europe. Reuters could not verify the footage. "This was a member of staff. Exactly what the relationship between that member of staff asking for a false bill and Janice Atkinson is I don't know. We have suspended Janice Atkinson," Farage said. "On the evidence of what the member of staff did it does not look very good. As far as the member of staff is concerned they have asked a commercial enterprise to do something that, as I understand it, is against the law." Farage said he had spoken to Atkinson in the early hours of Friday but had not "got a very clear answer". (Editing by Andrew Osborn and Louise Ireland)