The row in Ukip over parliamentary Short money has finally been resolved. Guido reports that Douglas Carswell, the party’s sole MP, has been advertising for a £60k per annum speechwriter, funded out of public money. This is the first indication that Ukip is setting itself up as a proper Westminster party through use of Short money.
To recap, the disagreement began after the general election, when a divide opened up between Carswell and Ukip HQ over whether to use some or all of the money allotted to it as an opposition party — known as Short money. Some kippers were keen take all of the available £670k, while Carswell was pushing for a more restrained approach.
In response to the briefing war, Nigel Farage took to Question Time and said the party wouldn’t be taking any public money — with rumours abound that one of Ukip’s big backers would fill their coffers:
‘I’m going to recommend that we don’t accept any of it. Given we’ve had an argument over this, I don’t want UKIP to look like other parties, grubbing around after public money.’
But Farage’s recommendation has been rejected by Ukip’s National Executive Committee. I understand that the NEC met recently and concluded that a compromise was needed. Farage’s recommendation of taking no Short money was rejected, while Carswell has acknowledged that he is the sole Commons representative for the 3.9 million people who voted Ukip in the general election and therefore needed adequate provisions to support them.
Therefore, paperwork was filed (pdf here) at Companies House on 8 July 2015 to create the ‘Ukip Parliamentary Resources Unit Ltd’, based in the House of Commons. Mark Reckless, the party’s former MP for Rochester & Strood and now Head of Policy, is named as the company secretary. His position is also being paid for out of public funds, via a policy development grant from the Electoral Commission. Ukip’s chairman Steve Crowther and Carswell are named as directors of the party’s PRU.
As of now, Ukip only has plans to spend £60,000 (on the speechwriting role) of the £670,000 Short money available. But the party is keen to ensure that all spending of public money is done in an open and transparent way. Given that Ukip now ‘looks like other parties’, it has to keep up this promise or risk looking like Westminster sell outs. But for Nigel Farage — who is having a quiet summer as advised by his colleagues — he has been put in place now. The NEC has reasserted itself after it appeared to be putty in his hands during the unresignation row.
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