CAN someone explain why it is that Janice Atkinson MEP is still sitting with Ukip colleagues in the European Parliament?

She was supposedly expelled from Ukip as the direct result of expenses fraud, when a recording surfaced that appeared to show her asking a restaurant to provide her with a receipt for £3,150 for a lunch attended by senior Ukip figures, when that lunch had in fact only cost £950.

At the time, in March, Farage said her conduct “couldn’t look worse”.

Ukip threw her out and said she had only 14 days to appeal the decision.

Two months later she is — apparently — still in the party and still has the party whip.

Could this be because her continued presence in the group, even as a police investigation is taking place, enables Ukip to claim millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money in allowances and other EU funding?

Is this another example of Ukip showing total disregard for the misuse of public money – or is there a perfectly innocent explanation?

Christian Vassie, Blake Court, Wheldrake, York.