A BY-ELECTION candidate has called for Ukip to foot the bill for re-running a vote just weeks after the Tendring Council polls.

Ukip councillor Len Sibbald, 66, quit his Tendring Council seat a month after the elections.

Mr Sibbald, who represented Clacton’s Rush Green ward, was one of nine Ukip councillors who joined a breakaway group to support a Conservative-led administration.

But he changed his mind one week later and rejoined the official Ukip group.

Mr Sibbald then quit the council, saying he felt “naive and gullible” for joining the breakaway group. He said it had been a difficult few weeks after his wife, who has suffered from cancer, had again become unwell.

Labour candidate Sam Atkinson has now called on Ukip to foot the £3,000 cost of re-running the election. Mrs Atkinson, who is also chairman of Tendring Neighbourhood Watch, said: “We are all having to foot the bill for Ukip’s internal squabbling.

“This is not fair on Rush Green residents and others in the Tendring district.

“The result of this shambles is that everybody in Tendring is being asked to stump up the £3,000 it will cost to hold another election.

“We want our money back and I’m demanding Ukip cough up.”

Ukip group leader Mark Stephenson said: “I’m outraged anyone at all could suggest Len has done anything wrong when his wife is so desperately ill.

“Len has done the honourable thing by standing down and has chosen his family above the council when they needed him the most.

“I would have hoped all members from all groups would support him in his hour of need.”

A Tendring Council spokesman said it “would not be right or proper” for any political party to pay costs of an election.