This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

The UK Independence party has suspended its general secretary in relation to alleged “impropriety”, after a female candidate accused him of sexually harassing her.

Roger Bird, who has been a senior Ukip official since July, told the Guardian there were no criminal allegations involved.

The claims have been made by Natasha Bolter, a former Labour supporter and rising star in the party who addressed its autumn conference and was hoping to be a candidate in Basildon, Essex.

She told the Times that Bird, who was involved in vetting candidates, made unwanted advances to her on the day she was interviewed after taking her to London’s Oxford and Cambridge Club.

She claimed that, on a second occasion, he called her for a meeting and bought her an expensive dress to wear to the same club before telling her that she “now looked like a girl who could get in a taxi”.

She told the newspaper that he made further unwanted advances after a meal, which she again rejected.

After this incident, Bolter claims to have received anonymous emails saying she had slept with Bird and “bullying” her, at which point she made a complaint to party officials.

Bird said: “Natasha Bolter’s candidate assessment was conducted entirely within the rules as the party has already verified.

“Subsequent to that, Natasha Bolter and I were in a consensual relationship. I am not the head of candidates and I do not dictate which candidates get selected for which seats, nor would I try to, although I have advised and helped a number of candidates over the course of my years in the party.

“The party quite rightly has a duty to investigate complaints of a potentially serious nature and I feel they have acted entirely properly in doing that … It is important that the party has instigated a formal process and I hope that will soon be brought to a conclusion.”

Ukip had earlier released a statement saying Bird had been suspended, while declining to go into details.

It said: “Shortly after a claim came to light about the conduct of Mr Bird with regard to candidate selection, the UK Independence party took action swiftly and decisively, including steps involving external human resources consultants, as well as following due process and the party’s constitution to the letter.

“Unfortunately, Ukip has had to suspend Mr Bird pending a full investigation into allegations made against him. The party has acted swiftly and decisively and will not tolerate impropriety of any kind amongst its staff.”

Bird has previously held a role as chairman of Ukip in south-east England and was selected as a parliamentary candidate for the seat of Cities of London and Westminster last month.

The party has recently been under scrutiny over the way some local candidates have been deselected potentially to make way for bigger names. Bird was involved in at least one of these controversies, as he told the Portsmouth News that the removal of Douglas Denny in Portsmouth South was a “routine event”.

His LinkedIn page says he has been general secretary of the party since July 2014 and was previously a finance director and auditor.

Ukip has previously suspended councillors for making controversial remarks about flooding being linked to gay marriage as well as racist and homophobic Facebook comments. Godfrey Bloom, the former Ukip MEP and frontbench spokesman, was also suspended last year over a series gaffes, including suggesting women were “sluts” for not cleaning behind the fridge and describing recipients of foreign aid as “bongo-bongo land”.