ICAEW rebels take a stand in Euro poll

Two former ICAEW rebels are giving accountancy activism a break to set up a political party.

Bruce Lawson, former Ukip treasurer and anti-ICAEW merger campaigner, along with Keymer Haslam’s Martin Haslam, who campaigned against current cost accounting in the 1970s, have set up the United Kingdom First Party.

The party will take on Ukip’s Nigel Farage and EU whistleblower Marta Andreasen by fielding candidates in next month’s European Parliament elections in the South East England and East of England constituencies.

UKFP wants to cut public spending, scrap ID cards and seeks a transfer of the 2012 London Olympics to another country. ‘We need to cut up to £80bn from UK public expenditure,’ said Lawson.

Former One Man and his Dog presenter Robin Page is also a member of the newly formed party.

Lawson was a vocal figure against the ICAEW over its plans to merge with CIPFA in 2004, with members narrowly voting against the proposal. Haslam and his late business partner David Keymer fought against the introduction of an accounting standard on current cost accounting in the late 1970s, with the belatedly introduced standard canned in the late 1980s.