Amjad Bashir announced he had defected to the Conservative Party from Ukip on Saturday evening

I have decided to leave Ukip because it has become a vanity project for Nigel Farage and because many of the criticisms made of the party are true. David Cameron famously said that Ukip was a party of ‘fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists’.

Certainly, I have experienced racism in Ukip. I have been racially abused on social media by other Ukip members who ask offensive questions like: ‘Are you a Muslim?’

I was angry when I was the only Ukip politician who was cut out of a video of speeches at a party event. I complained that it was because of my ethnic minority background, but was fobbed off.

Some of the antics of Ukip MEPs are appalling. They make childish remarks during debates and are abusive towards MEPs from other countries when there is no call for it.

I was outraged when I heard Mr Farage talk of a ‘fifth column’ of immigrants in Britain. I have worked hard all my life, and when my father came to this country he worked his socks off to provide for his family. It is an insult for him to talk in this way.

I joined Ukip because I wanted a referendum on the EU and wanted better controls on immigration. But now I have no doubt that Mr Cameron will deliver on this, so, in my view, Ukip has outlived its usefulness.

Mr Farage wants to use Ukip as a means for getting power for himself, and that is not what the party was set up to achieve.

He has created a popularist image for himself as the jolly chap at the bar with a pint in his hand, but the reality is different.

He runs the party like a dictator, employs people who are totally inappropriate for party positions and gets rid of anybody who stands in his way.

Ukip is guided more by dogma than common sense.

Since I became an MEP, I have been amazed that Ukip often votes against Britain’s national interest in the European Parliament. For example, we were told to vote against EU money for flood relief schemes in the UK because the money had come from Brussels. I protested that this was ridiculous because much of the EU money was British in the first place, but I was ignored.

Mr Bashir claims Nigel Farage runs his party 'like a dictator, employs people who are totally inappropriate for party positions and gets rid of anybody who stands in his way'

And Ukip’s reaction on finding out that I was going to join the Conservatives sums up what is wrong with them. They made a crude attempt to smear me with false allegations of irregularities in the recruitment of Asian members in Bradford.

There is not a shred of truth in any of the claims but it has made me more convinced than ever that I made the right decision.