Nigel Farage has stirred up talk again this morning of joint Conservative/Ukip or Labour/Ukip candidates. This has been doing the rounds ever since the Ukip leader mooted it in an interview with James in the Spectator, but neither main party is keen. The reason is that this would effectively outsource candidate selection to someone outside the Conservative or Labour party: only candidates Ukip considered sufficiently ‘sound’ according to its own standards would get the Farage kitemark, and therefore local parties with Ukip breathing down their necks might be tempted to choose a more Ukippish type to stand for them than otherwise.
But there’s another point worth making about the joint ticket. It’s Farage’s second best option now that he’s failed to persuade any Conservative MPs to defect to his party. It’s still a powerful option, as outlined above, but nowhere near as dramatic as a big fish defection.
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