内容摘要：In the Vatican, people gathered in St. Peter's Square.

In the Vatican, people gathered in St. Peter's Square.

One of the chairs was Maria Bowtell, a councillor on East Riding of Yorkshire Council who gave a speech at Reform UK's party conference last year.In her resignation letter, she said she felt "abandoned" in her role, described the party's candidate selection as "chaotic", and accused the leadership of lacking integrity.

Other members have quit on free-speech grounds, including Howard Cox, who stood as a Reform UK candidate in the general election and the London mayoral poll.He said he left the party after he was threatened with expulsion for criticising the treatment of Tommy Robinson, a prominent far-right activist.Cox told the BBC "my inboxes are now flooded with grassroots Reformers who are incredibly upset and feel that their political optimism for our country has been betrayed".

"Over a dozen Reform branches have contacted me, stating that they have been replaced, overridden, and disrespected by Zia Yusuf's headquarters team," he added.Other branch chairs resigned over policy differences, particularly the issue of "mass deportations", which Farage has called a "political impossibility".

Jack Davison, the former chair of the Dover and Deal branch, said in attempting to professionalise, the party was adopting the "very traits of the establishment it sought to challenge".

"This culture of 'silencing' was deeply troubling," he said.In March, another much larger contract for seven new small CalMac ferries, was awarded to a Polish firm by the government-owned ferries procurement body CMAL.

Western Ferries currently operates four small ferries, two of them built by Ferguson's in 2001 and 2003 when the yard was privately owned by the Dunnet family.The other two ferries, Sound of Seil and Sound of Soay, were previously built by Cammell Laird in 2013.

Western Ferries last year carried 1.2 million passengers and 600,000 cars on the Gourock to Dunoon route and employs about 60 people.David Dishon, chief financial officer at Ferguson Marine, said: "Having submitted a high-quality bid, this news is disappointing.