Earlier this year Raheem Kassam stood down as Nigel Farage’s senior aide after he became involved in a dispute within Ukip over his influence on the party leader following a lacklustre election result. Since then, Kassam has returned to the job he had before he joined Ukip, editing the website Breitbart London.
So Mr S was surprised to learn that despite losing his job in politics, Kassam has not lost any political sway. In fact according to Iain Dale’s new list of the ‘Top 100 most influential people on the right’ he is more influential than ever, climbing up 14 places from No.96 last year to No.82 this year:
Such is Kassam’s power as a blogger that — according to Dale — he has more influence on the right than the Head of of the No. 10 Policy Unit Camilla Cavendish. He is also supposedly more influential than No.10’s Director of Strategy Ameet Gill. MPs too pale in comparison to Kassam, with both David Davis and Andrew Mitchell ranked below Kassam when it comes to influence.
As for which publication Dale composed the list ‘exclusively for’? Well, Breitbart London, the very website that Raheem Kassam edits.
Check out @IainDale's #Top100OnTheRight list today, exclusively for Breitbart London: http://t.co/pghWKKmJ10 pic.twitter.com/vSpCxXORpF
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) October 4, 2015
Given that Kassam ranked 14 places lower last year when Ukip were at a high — and the list was published by the Times, Mr S suspects one should take his status with a pinch of salt for now. After all, Steerpike failed to spy any mention of him in this year’s Debretts’ 500 list.
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